Hunted In Seattle
by TwiLoverSue
Summary: Edward wasn't the only vampire to find Bella's scent mouthwatering. A delay in her journey meant she never made it to Forks, but she did become a vampire…in the worst possible way. What sort of a newborn will she make without the Cullens to guide her, and what will she think of Edward when they meet? No rape or graphic violence . Edward & Bella HEA...eventually.
1. Chapter 1

**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse...and posting my first ever Quick Fic. I started out with a plan for shortish chapters (800 - 1800 words), but the chapters get longer toward the end. I hope you enjoy. **

**These first chapters were beta'ed by Squeaky Zorro (and Chloe Cougar, too, I think – it was a while ago), but I've written in and changed things a little, so any mistakes in grammar are all mine.**

**Words: 1824  
**

Hunted in Seattle

Chapter 1

Adventure

BPOV

"Hi Dad, I'm in Seattle." I kept my tone bright, hoping that would keep Charlie from panicking. "There's been a delay with the plane to Port Angeles, and I'm going to have to stay the night. But I've got a flight booked for first thing tomorrow."

Not surprisingly, my pronouncement was met with silence.

"Um…there's nothing to worry about. The airline has organized a hotel room for the night, and I've got vouchers for the hotel restaurant. It's perfectly safe; there's a shuttle bus to the hotel and everything."

"I don't know, Bells," Charlie finally spoke. "I could drive out to get you. Wouldn't be there 'til midnight though, as I can't really get off work just now…"

"Honestly, Dad, I'd much rather stay in a hotel than wait at the airport. I'll be careful and you'll see me tomorrow morning." I crossed my fingers, hoping that he would agree to my unexpected little adventure but not wanting to sound too desperate.

Eventually, after numerous reassurances that I'd be fine on my end and a lecture about personal safety on his, Charlie gave his reluctant permission. Smiling with relief, I collected my vouchers and boarded the shuttle bus into the city.

While it was my choice to sentence myself to almost two years in dismal, dreary Forks to give my mom and her new husband the opportunity to travel together while I finished up high school, it didn't mean a delay in the commencement of my incarceration wasn't welcome. I'd never seen Seattle, other than the airport a couple of times when I'd come to visit Charlie on access visits and that was years earlier, and I was excited to have the opportunity to take a look around.

The hotel was pretty basic, but it didn't matter since I wasn't planning on spending any time there other than sleeping. Taking just long enough to stow my bags and use the bathroom, I set off to explore the city.

The tourist precinct was buzzing, and Pike Place Market was fun, just as I'd imagined it to be. I stood in the crowd and watched the fish being tossed before grabbing a hot dog with the works for dinner. The hotel restaurant had looked pretty dull, though I was sure breakfast there would be fine. After spending some time listening to the buskers and watching the street performers scattered along the waterfront, I called it a night, content with my unexpected adventure. The ever-dutiful daughter, I was on my way back to the hotel a little before nine pm as promised, choosing not to waste money on a cab when the distance was minimal and the sidewalk well lit.

In hindsight, I should have spent the money on a taxi, as that was when my little adventure went from being something fun…to something else entirely.

"Help! Somebody help me!" I heard a girl's cry, the sound coming from an alleyway off the main road. There was no one else around to hear or help, so I paused, peering into the darkness and wondering what to do. Charlie's warnings immediately sounded in my head. It _could_ be a trap. I'd been reluctant to get a cell phone, but I was starting to regret my decision.

After a moment, my eyes to adjust to the gloom, and I spotted a young woman sitting with her back against the brick wall of the alley, about ten yards in from the entrance. She was very pretty, with the most amazing red ringlets.

"Um…are you okay?" I asked, glancing up and down the road looking for anyone who might be able to help.

"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed, bringing my eyes back to her lovely face. "I think I've sprained my ankle. Can you help me to my feet?"

I hesitated. She looked harmless enough, pale and a little rumpled, but I couldn't help wondering what she was doing in the alley in the first place.

"Please?" she pleaded, her sweet, high voice making her sound even younger than she looked. "I know I was silly to come down here, but I saw the cutest kitten. It looked half starved, and I just had to try and save it."

I suppressed a snort. She was a rescuer like me, though I tended to focus on people rather than animals.

"Okay…" I approached cautiously, all my senses on full alert. Charlie might not approve of my getting involved, but I blamed him for my over-developed nurture gene—though in his case it had translated as 'protect and serve' rather than 'act like a responsible parent when you're still just a teenager' as it had in mine. My mothering tendency certainly hadn't come from Renee.

The girl was small, like me, and didn't appear to be any sort of threat. Still, I crouched down a short distance from her and continued to scan further down the alley just in case she wasn't alone. When no one else appeared, I inched my way closer, which was when I noticed her scent—like flowers or very expensive perfume. I wasn't normally a big one for artificial fragrances, or artificial anything for that matter, but this was the nicest perfume I'd ever smelled.

I guessed that ruled out the possibility of her being homeless, though she could have stolen it, I supposed. But her clothes were a little off; kind of ragged around the edges and an oddly mismatched collection of styles. Her beautiful hair was dreaded in places, but it didn't look like she'd had it professionally done in a salon, more like she'd not bothered to comb out the knots when they'd formed. The ankle she had resting on one knee looked fine, and I frowned, cocking my head.

Something wasn't quite right, but when I went to move back, her hand shot out and grabbed me around the wrist.

"Hey!" My cry started out as a protest but quickly became one of pain. The grip of her icy cold hand was incredibly strong, and my eyes shot up to her face in surprise. The sweet, imploring expression was gone, replaced with a fierce determination.

"It's okay," I whimpered, tugging ineffectually against her hold. "I'll help…I wasn't going to just leave you."

"Oh, you foolish girl, leaving was never an option," she hissed, and I pulled harder, clawing at her fingers with my free hand. A strange, growling noise rumbled from her chest and the light caught her eyes, making them appear a dark, blood red.

She must be an addict of some sort, I realized, too late. It was the only explanation I could think of for her strength and strange behavior.

"I've got money, if you want it," I offered, jerking my head toward my purse that had fallen to the ground beside me, but she just laughed. The eerie, bell-like sound sent a chill right through me, that and the fact that despite my struggles, I couldn't loosen her grip in the slightest.

Charlie's words ran through my mind—make noise, draw attention, do whatever you have to do to get away, to get help—and I sucked in a breath, preparing to scream. But I never got the chance. Her hand shot out, grabbing me around the neck and cutting off my airway. Screaming was no longer an option—I couldn't even breathe!

Panicked, I began to struggle in earnest, trying to loosen her grip on my neck. Then everything went crazy. The muted colors of the alleyway blurred together: dark gray concrete, brown brick, splashes of red from the girls hair, while a howling wind picked me up and tossed me like I was a rag doll. My head smacked against something hard, and when my vision cleared, I saw that I was being held up against the wall at the far end of the alley—by my throat—my feet dangling above the ground. It was as if my weight was _nothing_ to the girl, and I had no idea how she'd moved so fast or was holding me up so easily. Surely, not even drugs could give someone that sort of strength and speed?

"Well done, Vic." A sleazy-looking man with a dark blond ponytail appeared at the girl's side, his eyes, an evil red, locking on my face. "Three in one night. You really are the most alluring vamp I know." He put his arm around her waist, and the girl turned her head to kiss him full on the mouth. They took their time, seemingly indifferent to my futile struggles and the fact that I was suffocating.

"Shall we have her here or take her back to the warehouse to savor?" the girl asked, and a faint whimper escaped my strangled throat.

The man shrugged. "I'm full from the last two we shared. You, Laurent?"

Another man appeared as if out of nowhere, with long black dreadlocks and a strange sheen to his very dark skin. His eyes were also red and roamed over my body with what I could only describe as a hungry gleam. Leaning in close, he sniffed up and down my neck, his cold nose brushing against my skin.

"I want her," he stated baldly, and I kicked futilely against the wall as my panic escalated.

The blond man shrugged and nodded to the woman who released me. Crumpling to the ground, I gasped for air, coughing and choking as my hands clutched at my throat.

"Not to drink, though she does have the most mouthwatering blood, but to keep. I want to change her," the dark-skinned man added, his terrifying words making little sense.

"Whoa!" Ponytail guy laughed. "Finally! Though I always pictured you with something a little more…exotic."

"She's not much to look at." The red-head sniffed.

"She has potential." The man with the dreadlocks continued to stare down at me with his unnatural red gaze, and I started to cry. I tried to stifle my sobs, knowing I needed to keep it together if I was going to get out of this alive. But everything hurt, and I was just so damned afraid of what they were going to do to me.

"It's her scent," the dread-locked man continued, his odd island accent sending icy shivers down my spine. "I've never smelled anything like her before, and I find it very _appealing_. I'm hoping the attraction will translate once she's changed."

"I guess its back to the warehouse then." Ponytail guy shrugged as the other man picked me up like I was a sack of potatoes. Throwing me effortlessly over his shoulder, he then leaped, in huge bounds, up the side of the building facing the alley like a super-villain in a Marvel comic...with me his completely hapless victim.

My head banged mercilessly against his back as we flew through the night across the rooftops of the city, and the world that had suddenly gone insane…went black.

_~HIS~_

**I'd love to hear what you thought of the introduction. Would you have gone into that alley? **

**xxx TLSue**


	2. Torture

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse...and upping the ante on the angst for a while**_

_**Thanks so much for all the reviews for the first chapter. Wow! I appreciate everyone's support. Thanks also for all the kind words you guys gave my completed fics. I'm working on review replies, but it might take a while. It was great to get the feedback regarding my Original Fic pseudonym. I'm going to go with Elise de Sallier (my gran's maiden name) for my historical fics – glad most of you liked it - but I might 'toughen it up a bit' to A. E. Desallier for the paranormals. LOL! I have to get them written and published first!**_

_**Thanks to Squeaky Zorro for betaing a long time ago and Chloe Cougar for cleaning up the mess I'd made with my additions. :D**_

_**Words: 855**_

Torture

BPOV

When I regained consciousness, I was lying against a concrete wall in a cold, dark, cavernous building, in shock and hurting all over. My head pounded in time with my heart beat, throbbing with pain, and I groaned, lifting a hand to gingerly feel the raised lumps on the back of my skull. Attempting to straighten up, I moved my leg, only to scream in agony as pain lanced through my body, radiating out from my thigh like a stab wound from a burning knife.

The dreadlocked man appeared and crouched before me, running his icy cold hands over my body with brutal force and causing me to cry out even more in both pain and terror.

"You broke her leg when you kicked her, James," he hissed over his shoulder.

"Oops…" Ponytail Guy said without remorse. "I was just trying to bring her 'round. Didn't think you'd want your 'beloved' missing out on the big event."

Cringing back against the wall, I tried not to hyperventilate but it was difficult at I was overwhelmed by fear. All I could remember of Charlie's advice for what to do if I ever ended up in a _really _bad situation was, "Don't panic…that's what kills people every time," and, "Do whatever you have to to get away."

My leg was broken, I was concussed, and I was fairly certain I was about to be raped. I wasn't sure that not panicking or getting away were viable options.

"My name is Laurent, ma cherie." The man leaned close again and ran the back of his fingers down my cheek as he spoke. "I'm sorry James hurt you. I'd like to say that you have nothing to fear from me, but I'm afraid what I'm about to do to you is going to hurt a great deal more than a broken limb. On the positive side, if you survive, your leg won't be broken anymore."

I stared, horrified. He was going to torture me?

"Oh, just get on with it," the red-head muttered, walking over to peer down at my huddled form. "I'm betting you won't be able to stop, and you'll drink her dry."

"Pull me off her if it looks like that's going to happen." Laurent turned, addressing the one he'd called James. "Promise me."

"If that's what you want, but I vote we clear out for the three days then come back to see if she's made it. I don't mind listening to my victims' screams but only if I'm deriving pleasure from their pain."

Laurent nodded and hauled me into his arms. The bones in my leg ground together, the pain excruciating, and I gasped for air, sobbing against his chest but refusing to let them hear me scream…again. Holding me tight, he rocked me as if he was trying to comfort me before murmuring into my ear, "I do hope you won't hold this against me, as I am very much looking forward to our being together when you have completed the change."

His words made no sense, certainly none that I could discern in the state I was in, though I knew enough to be terrified. My only hope was that I would somehow survive whatever it was he intended to do to me.

_Try to stay strong, try to stay strong, try to stay strong. _I chanted Charlie's advice to me over and over in my mind, trying to picture myself once this ordeal was over, in Forks, sitting at the kitchen table with my dad in the house that was once again going to be my home...safe...whole. But then Laurent pulled me even closer and sniffed all along my neck, shuddering as if he found pleasure in my scent.

Sick to my stomach with pain and revulsion, I whimpered uncontrollably when I felt him nuzzle against my neck. My stomach heaved, and I thought I might throw up, briefly hoping that if I did he might be put off and leave me alone. But then I felt the graze of his teeth against my skin. Struggling with renewed terror, I tried to pull away but couldn't move. His hold on me was too strong, and then a sharp sting that turned into a deep, stabbing pain fixed me in place.

Had he bitten me?

A tugging sensation confirmed my horrifying suspicion as he sucked at my neck, and though everything inside me warred against the impossibility of the situation, I knew that he was drinking my blood...

_Oh, Charlie…Mom…I'm so sorry,_ I thought, despairing of ever seeing them again...or of ever going home. But then rational thought became impossible as pain, worse than my shattered leg, worse than the pounding in my head from my concussion, worse than anything I'd ever imagined, radiated out from where Laurent's teeth were sunk deep into my neck. Like acid burning in my veins, the pain consumed my entire body, and no power on earth could have stopped the screams that tore from my throat and ripped through the air.

_~HIS~_

_**Poor Bella. Like me, many of you would have gone into the alley, too soft-hearted to ignore what looked like a girl in need. Though the more city-wise amongst you would have gone for back-up first!**_

_**Any guesses on how Edward's coping just now...or if he's even aware of what's happening? **_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	3. The New Girl

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight…I'm just tweaking the Twiverse._**

**_I've updated the summary for this story (see above) as sassygirl156 pointed out, violence doesn't get much more extreme than being kidnapped, knocked unconscious, having your leg shattered, and then being bitten and turned into a vampire against your will! What I probably should have said was no _****graphic_ depictions of violence (shudder). I hope that helps and reassures everyone a little. _**

**_Thanks for all the amazing reviews and support. There were lots of interesting ideas from you guys as to whether Edward would even know about Bella's existence yet. One thing I can say for Alice's talent…it's mighty unpredictable! Sometimes she has to wait for people to make a decision, other times she can see way off into the future. I've always found it a bit contradictory, so I'm just going with what works for this story. Incongruities can be blamed on the mighty Ms Meyer. _**

**_Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for their amazing beta skills._**

**_Words: 1364_**

The New Girl

EPOV

If I'd thought the new girl's arrival had been a matter of interest among the students of Forks High, it was nothing to the reaction caused by her non-arrival. Isabella Swan and her mysterious disappearance in Seattle was all anyone could talk or _think_ about, and I was looking forward to a reprieve from the endless conjecture regarding her surprise disappearance in Seattle. Fortunately, the school day was almost over, and we'd soon be able to escape the presence of humans and drop the façades that hid our true natures. In the meantime, I was doing my best to drown out the incessant mental and verbal chatter by reworking a composition that had been troubling me for some time.

It's not that I wasn't interested in what had happened to the girl; her father was the local Chief of Police, after all, not to mention being rather too personally connected to the local wolf pack for our liking. But it was difficult for me to care one way or another about a human girl I'd never met and who would no doubt be little more than a blip on the radar of my and my family's existence. Not that I wanted any harm to have come to the girl, I wasn't _that _much of a monster, but whatever had happened was really none of my concern.

Or so I thought.

With the students too unsettled to teach, Mr Banner gave permission for the class to take a break and speak quietly amongst themselves. Despite the fact that I was sitting with my nose buried in the biology text pretending to read and giving off very strong "leave me alone" vibes, one of the students bravely approached. Sighing, I raised my head. Angela was a nice girl, one of the kindest I'd ever come across with a genuinely caring mind, which is why I made the effort not to glare and actually smiled a little—not enough to dazzle her—while taking the piece of paper she jerkily passed my way.

"It's not like we can really do anything from here in Forks, since she disappeared in Seattle, but we're printing off some pictures of Chief Swan's daughter to put up around town just in case..." Her words trailed away as I clearly wasn't paying any attention. My focus was trained solely on the grainy photocopied picture of the missing girl, Isabella Swan, that I held in my suddenly shaking hand.

Vampires do not _shake, _with nerves or anything else for that matter. But with one glance at the picture, the axis of my world…shifted.

Moving as fast as I dared, I approached the teacher's desk, excusing myself from the classroom on the pretext of feeling ill. Alice met me in the hall, her expression stricken.

"Tell me," I demanded, striding with her around a corner and away from inquisitive eyes. "What have you seen? What have you been hiding?"

Alice and I both knew she'd been keeping something from me for the past few weeks. I hadn't pried, letting her have her fun, or so I thought, but now I realized there was something far more important going on than a surprise gift or a secret prank.

"Not here, Edward, please," she pleaded, images rushing through her mind so quickly I knew she was still endeavoring to keep their meaning hidden. What I could glean from the snatches of thought that I was able to capture was that she'd been aware of Isabella Swan's significance to me, and our family, for some time now.

"Alice…" I growled, wanting to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, but knowing that I wouldn't, and in all honesty couldn't, as she'd only evade me. Jasper arrived, far more quickly than was wise, and pulled his mate away from me and into his arms, sensing my mood.

"Call Carlisle," I ordered. "Tell him to contact the school and say we're needed…a family emergency." It wouldn't be a lie. I was still trembling and feeling things I'd never felt before, certainly not in relation to a human.

Within moments, the five of us were peeling out of the school parking lot, spread between the Jeep and Volvo.

"Where are you going?" Jasper demanded from the back seat of the Volvo where he sat with his arm wrapped protectively around Alice's huddled form. She was virtually lost to us in her visions, continuing to scan multiple futures so rapidly that I was still, effectively, blocked.

"Past Chief Swan's house," I growled, barely containing my frustration. I wasn't sure what I hoped to accomplish by the exercise, but I felt compelled to at least check and see if any progress had been made in the search for his daughter…or any other insights his thoughts might have to offer.

She didn't look like it from her picture, but for all I knew she could be a rebellious or even merely inconsiderate teenager who'd simply decided to take a detour on her journey without informing her father. But that didn't explain my reaction to her image.

Slowing down just enough to take the corner without rolling, the volvo screeched to a halt when I saw the mess of cars parked in haphazard fashion in front of Chief Swan's white clapboard home. The Quileute were well-represented, understandably, since he was such a close friend and associate of the tribe, but their presence limited my ability to draw closer…as did the police vehicles and a white broadcast van from a Seattle television station.

Our presence was duly noted, and several overly tall, overly muscular young men with dark, reddish skin and short black hair glared menacingly our way.

Ignoring them, I focused my concentration on singling out Chief's Swan's thoughts from the confusion, but it proved impossible. He'd never been easy to read, and now all I could discern was a few fragmented images of a younger version of his daughter, smiling shyly when her father met her at an airport in the south. What I could tell from his thoughts and those of everyone gathered, was that Isabella's disappearance was considered entirely out of character.

Groaning, I slammed my hands down on the steering wheel, denting it out of shape though not enough that I wouldn't be able to drive.

"Edward, you going to tell me what the hell's going on?" Jasper drawled, his laconic tone at odds with the contents of his words.

"At home…not here," I offered and pulled back out onto the main highway.

Within moments we were all assembled in the living room, Carlisle having arrived just before us with Esme, ever-supportive, at his side. One look at my anguished expression, which I could see reflected in all my family's thoughts, and she moved to offer me comfort…but I held her off with an abrupt gesture. I was barely holding myself together as it was.

"Alice…now, please." I turned to my sister, begging, and she acquiesced, finally giving me clear access to her thoughts and the visions she'd kept from me. But what I saw, what her visions predicted, was incomprehensible.

Isabella Swan—Bella, she preferred Bella—and me _together_: talking, laughing, with my family, running, with me carrying her on my back, laying together in my meadow, holding hands…_kissing_.

Staggering back, I have would fallen if Esme hadn't caught hold of me, pulling me into her embrace. I went willingly despite my earlier refusal of her offer of comfort, needing the connection with reality. None of it made any sense, but the images continuing to run through Alice's mind, and the inexplicable response they triggered within me, would have brought me to my knees had it not been for Esme's support.

While I heard Alice's explanation to the family regarding what she'd seen, what she'd been hiding from us—that Bella was my mate, the love of my existence—my mind couldn't accept the impossibility of her visions.

Her very subjective visions.

But then she told the family—and showed me—what she'd seen, repeatedly, but hadn't worried about before today...before Bella's disappearance.

Bella as one of us.

Bella as a vampire.

_~HIS~_

**_It's like this…No Edward of mine, human or vampire, is _****ever _going to react to his first sighting of Bella with a 'meh.' Just saying…_**

**_xxx TLSue_**


	4. Missing

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight...I'm just tweaking the Twiverse.**_

_**Thank you so very much for all the support you guys are showing this little tale, and I'm glad you're enjoying the Quick Fic format. It is fun for a change. :D**_

_** I'm sorry I can't reply to more reviews, though I will attempt to answer non-plot-revealing questions either directly or in these ANs. My motivation for choosing to have Laurent change Bella was the New Moon movie scene when he gets up close and breaths in her 'mouthwatering' scent. It totally creeped me out the first time I saw it...and got me to thinking.**_

_**SoapyMayhem has created an awesome animated blinky for Hunted in Seattle. I tried to fix the link here but FFn won't let me. You can find it on Twitter under either Soapy's or my tag - I'm at twiloversue.  
**_

_**Thanks Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this angsty little baby.**_

_**Words: 990**_

Chapter 4

Missing

EPOV

"Please, just tell me where she is," I begged, unable to discern the location from the fragmented pictures flooding Alice's mind.

"She's looking, Edward. Give her time." Emmett's tone was soothing as he came to stand beside me , one of his large hands coming to rest on my shoulder. "What's so special about the Chief's daughter, Isabella? Why her?"

"Because she's my singer!" My agonized retort was met with uniformly shocked expressions. "And she should have walked into biology class today…though we all know she wouldn't have walked out alive," I added bitterly.

"You wouldn't have hurt her." Alice paused her search, attempting to reassure me, but the sentiment was something I was unable to accept. "She's not just your singer, she's your mate. You love her, or you will, we all will…or would have." Even Alice's eternal optimism was wavering at the wall of darkness she encountered no matter how hard she tried to determine Bella's location.

"Tell us about her. What's she like?" Esme asked, and I groaned, my hands fisting in my hair. I didn't normally pay Alice's longer-term visions too much mind, well aware of how easily they could change. But she'd been hiding a great deal from me, from _us, _searching multiple time-lines, tracking every conceivable possibility for the last few weeks since the decision was made for Bella to come and live with her father in Forks. In each and every one of them, Isabella Swan—Bella—was a constant in our lives in some form or another. Most of the visions were so wonderful, so filled with joy and life and potential that I could barely comprehend it. But in others, the few situations where Bella was absent from the scene for whatever reason, our family was scattered, all but destroyed, and I was..._missing._

"Edward?" Carlisle prompted, and I drew in a breath, my eyes meeting his and then moving on to take in my waiting family, one member at a time.

"She's beautiful," I whispered, awestruck by the images playing over in my mind. "Petite, with long brown hair…but not a plain brown, it's chestnut-colored with red highlights, especially in the sunlight. Her skin is flawless, almost as pale as ours, and looks soft as silk, and her eyes are brown…warm…human."

My family listened as I attempted to describe the sweet, seventeen-year-old girl that Alice predicted would capture my heart—and soul, if that were possible—and had already captured my undivided attention. The intense protectiveness that had surged within me when I saw her picture and continued unabated was something I had only ever felt for my family.

But my words were wholly inadequate. How could I express her character, the charm, the innocence, and the goodness that radiated from her? Then there was her intelligence, perceptiveness, wit, and humor. And what words could describe the impossibility of her liking me, accepting me, accepting all of us, and the even greater impossibility of my being able to have any sort of relationship with a human girl…my singer?

"She was last seen in Seattle," Jasper offered, his thoughts assessing the various clues and fragments he'd picked up so far from school and the news channels broadcasting quietly from the corner of the room. "Her purse was found close to the entrance of an alleyway not far from her hotel…intact, so robbery doesn't appear to be the motive. There have been a number of unexplained disappearances in the city over the last month or so," he concluded soberly, the significance of his words not lost on any of us.

Moaning, I dropped my head in my hands. "Then she's already dead," I uttered flatly, her singer's blood no doubt incredibly appealing to the nomadic vampire we suspected of being Seattle's latest 'serial killer.'

"No…I don't think so." Alice ceased her searching for a moment and joined in the conversation. "But wherever she is, it's dark and she's _unable_ to make any decisions. I want to try something. Everyone, Edward, you included, I need you to decide that you want Bella to be a part of our family, to be with us…no matter what."

The others quickly murmured their assent, but I stared at Alice, aghast. Didn't she know what that meant, the risk that would be to Bella, a human girl, my singer? She shouldn't come anywhere near me!

"It's our only chance of finding her, Edward," Alice persisted. "You can change your mind later if you think it's too dangerous."

I could hear from Alice's thoughts that she was utterly convinced I would end up with Bella, one way or another, but I was not about to be drawn into her deluded fantasy. Out of desperation to find Bella and make sure that she was safe, though I would have to keep my distance, I was willing to try her suggestion. As soon as I made the mental connection, Alice was swept into a series of new visions of Bella, stronger, clearer and far more powerful than any of the others she'd experienced.

Bella, running down the darkened alleyways of a city, her hair streaming behind her as she flew through the night. Bella, crouching and hiding, hunted and afraid. Bella, barefoot, her clothes bedraggled, but this time in the forest. And finally, though I knew enough of Alice's visions to know that they were unlikely to be sequential, Bella, crouching in the darkness of a grey, cavernous building, a bewildered expression on her face and the body of a man crumpled at her feet.

But that wasn't what tore the agonized cry from my throat: it was the gleaming red eyes that peered from Bella's beautiful, anguished face…and the blood that coated her lips and dripped from her teeth and down her chin.

Bella..._my _Bella—I already thought of her that way despite the bleak impossibility of the situation—clearly bewildered and tormented in the aftermath of her first kill.

_~HIS~_

_**Oh Edward...always so tormented, but this time, so quickly smitten (Yes!) – though Alice letting him see all the scenes of him and Bella together may have helped speed up the process. Such a pity her visions never seem to pick up the really bad stuff before it happens. Hmmm...**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	5. Awakening

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight...I'm just tweaking the Twiverse.**_

_**Thanks to my awesome betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this angsty little baby.**_

_**I've posted the link to SoapyMayhem's awesome animated banner on my newly updated profile page. **_

_**Thanks for all the reviews. The consensus is that Edward needs to hurry up and go rescue Bella **_**before ****_the baddies come back. Here's hoping..._**

_**Words: 1254**_

Chapter 5

Awakening

BPOV

Just as my fingers had torn at my clothing, and eventually my own skin and hair, in a desperate but futile attempt to escape the acid that burned through my body from the inside out, my mind had torn itself apart trying to escape the agony. So, when after an eternity of torment the pain stopped, I wasn't able to make sense of it, or of anything else for that matter. Who or where I was, how I came to be there, were all inexplicable, unanswerable questions.

But eventually, reason returned, and I registered thirst above all; a dreadful, burning thirst that made me want to claw at my throat. Gradually, I became aware of my body, thankfully pain free but curled up in a ball on a hard, damp surface and surrounded by a smell so atrocious that it made me wonder if I'd been left for dead in a dumpster. I also realized that I was naked, and with that thought came the memory of shredding my clothes with my bare hands and of tearing my nails out in the process.

Slowly, warily, I opened my eyes, but I was too afraid of what I might see to look around and stared only at my fingers hovering before me. I was expecting to see a ragged, bloodied mess, but they were flawless, the nails manicured to perfection. Squinting to study them more closely, I stared in shock when the image suddenly changed. It was as if I was looking at my fingers through a magnifying glass; every pore, every hair, every _skin __cell_ a thousand times, _ten _thousand times their normal size.

With a blink, my vision returned to normal, and I gasped in a breath, though my lungs felt..._strange. _Summoning the courage to look up, I saw that I was in a large, dark warehouse-type building. There was no light to speak of, yet I could see everything as though I was wearing night vision goggles but without the green tinge. When I tried squinting again, the images magnified and zoomed in closer.

Something very, _very_ strange had happened to my eyesight.

With other more pressing concerns; the fact that I was nude and clearly vulnerable, I looked around. To my relief, I quickly determined that I was alone—though how I knew that so unequivocally, I wasn't sure—the building empty save for some crates and debris.

I needed clothing, to work out where I was, and to escape, but above all I was desperate for something to drink. My hand went to my throat again, and I moaned, the thirst unbearable, the pain not entirely gone, after all.

Clothes first, I reminded myself and glanced around me, wondering what had happened to the ones I was wearing before…

The thought was cut off when I saw a pile of shredded cloth and, sickeningly, what looked like strips of drying skin and patches of long brown hair scattered all around me—the source of the terrible smell. Blanching, I realized that my bizarre thoughts were actually true. I'd done that to myself, tearing at my own flesh to try and escape the pain.

Shaking my head in shocked denial, I stood then took a quick inventory of my body…my perfectly whole and injury-free body.

Hadn't there been something wrong with my leg?

With that thought, my memory came flooding back, and I cried out in terror. Where were they, my captors, my _attackers_? And why had they left me unguarded?

Probably because they doubted I'd be going anywhere with a shattered thigh, though how that had come to be completely healed without even a bruise at the site of the injury, not to mention that, other than my throat, there wasn't a single ache or pain anywhere in my body despite their brutal treatment of me, I had no idea. My hand shifted to the side of my neck, and I felt the faint, raised edges of a scar.

I wasn't imagining things.

It had really happened.

Laurent had bitten me, drank my blood, and then left me to die in absolute agony. Only I _didn't _die, and they might be back at any moment.

Spurred into action, I crept around the edges of the room, or I tried to creep. In reality, I moved so quickly that I found myself on the opposite side of the cavernous space almost as soon as I decided to move.

Was I teleporting?

Deciding to move again, I took careful note, and though I once again ended up at my destination virtually in an instant, I _was _aware of every step of the way, the movement of my body, and the passing of the space around me. In one sense, I was moving so quickly it was all just a blur, but if I focused, I could see everything around me with crystal clarity.

I wasn't teleporting, I was just moving very, _very, _fast.

This was all very interesting, but I was _still _naked, I reminded myself and began searching for something to cover myself with while trying as best I could not to blur from spot to spot. I also knew I had to get something to drink, soon, or I'd be tempted to tear through my skin to get at my own blood.

The thought was so bizarre I paused mid-crouch. I'd seen that on a movie once, in sociology class, when a hiker was trapped and dehydrated, and he decided to drink the blood dripping from a wound rather than let the fluid go to waste. Naturally, I'd fainted, much to my embarrassment and the amusement of my classmates.

Why I would think of that as a viable solution to my problem was beyond me.

To my relief, I found a pile of discarded clothing in an alcove leading off the main room: a rank, mismatch of garments that smelled unbelievably bad. With limited choices and afraid of Laurent and the others returning to find me naked, I rifled through the unpleasant assortment to pick out the least offensive pieces. Once I was covered enough to be decent, I looked again at the pile of discarded clothing, trying to find some clues to their owner's identities. There was nothing, though one particular item grabbed my attention.

It was just a t shirt, white, plain but covered with reddish brown stains…stains that didn't smell bad…stains that actually smelled _good_. Lifting the shirt close to my nose, I inhaled the aroma. The incredible scent caused the itching burn in the back of my throat to flare up like I'd thrown gasoline on a fire.

I fought against the dreadful realization but couldn't deny what I somehow knew, bone-deep; that the source of the stains was the very thing I needed to relieve my agonizing thirst.

_No!_ I shook my head, repulsed by the horrifying idea. I didn't need anything but water…that was all.

But I was deluding myself…or trying to. I wasn't stupid, and my mind was rapidly clearing, bringing me to an unavoidable conclusion. The small girl with the superhuman strength and speed, the evil trio's red eyes and bizarre words, the way Laurent had carried me effortlessly up the side of a building and across the city, his biting me, drinking my blood and infecting me with something that caused untold pain, and finally, my awakening, whole, unbroken, and thirsting for what I knew could only be one thing…blood.

They were vampires, and now…so was I.

_~HIS~_

_**Darn...at the end of every chapter all I can think to say is Poor Bella or Poor Edward. I promise this angst won't go on forever...but it could last a while. *ducks for cover***_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	6. Thwarted

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight...I'm too upset to tweak anything at the moment. Sigh...**_

_**In light of all the sad and uncertain happenings in the Twiverse today, I wish I had something fluffy rather than downright angsty to post. So to offer a little bit of cheer, I'll be posting the next chapter in a few hours (once I've fed the family who are watching me closely, afraid I'll fall into depression or something, which is pretty tragic considering my age and supposed maturity!) rather than tomorrow. It's a nice long one, too, whereas this EPOV is a bit short.**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this angsty baby. **_

_**Here's a lovely poem that Rabadams 7 wrote for Hunted In Seattle**_

**A stunned Edward  
A broke hearted Charlie  
A confounded new vampire  
A city to be lost in  
Who is the hunter  
Who is hunted  
Now**

_**Words: 750**_

Chapter 6

Thwarted

EPOV

"She's awake, and she's terrified, but I think she's working out what happened."

I heard Alice's words, but I was too focused on the images in her mind to respond. At least they weren't of Bella screaming and tearing at herself in her agony. Once we'd accepted the brutal reality of Bella's situation, Alice's visions had cleared, giving us glimpses of Bella undergoing the change that would transform her from the sweet, innocent human girl Alice had been seeing for the past few weeks—the ones she'd _finally _let me see, giving me the chance to get to know Bella even though we'd never met—to the vicious, uncontrollable, newborn vampire that not one of her visions had predicted.

And she wondered why I treated her predictions with a certain degree of skepticism?

"_Now_ can we go find her?" Emmett demanded, pacing impatiently. I wasn't the only one finding our lack of action intolerable, but Alice was adamant she needed more clues to Bella's whereabouts, and we'd do no good blundering around the city unguided. While I thought that surely we'd have been able to track her, especially if I got a whiff of her human scent, I'd been reluctant to push, having caught sight of the potential outcomes of an ill-thought-out rescue mission.

Bella's attacker, her creator, wasn't a lone vampire, but a member of a coven of three hardened and experienced predators…predators who weren't going to let go of their newest member without a fight.

It wasn't the fight I was afraid of, but the repeated images I'd seen in Alice's mind of Bella being harmed in the process. She was strong, like any newborn, but inexperienced and likely to be targeted by the coven who'd turned her, preferring her destruction than escape.

"I don't understand why we're not in Seattle, already." Rose's frustration and reawakened feelings of powerlessness colored her tone. Not that I blamed her. I'd never felt so helpless in all my existence.

"We need to tread carefully," Jasper placated, even as his arm remained protectively around his wife's shoulders. "We outnumber this coven, but they're not to be underestimated. They won't be as cautious as us, or as concerned about drawing attention to themselves or protecting human life."

"You think they don't know about the Volturi?" Carlisle queried, surprised.

"Oh, they'll know," Jasper warned. "They'll just assume that they can kill any witnesses to their indiscretions…and they will, without hesitation."

"Then what do we do?" Emmett demanded.

"We wait." The words tore hoarsely from Alice's throat. "I've explored every option and the outcomes are all uncertain if not disastrous if we attempt to rescue Bella. The only option with any chance of success is if we wait for her to come to us…here…in Forks."

Her words were met with stunned disbelief. None of us, myself included, even having seen the things that Alice was yet to describe, could quite believe that our only option was to sentence Bella to God knew what brutality—to abandon her to her fate—while we waited, doing nothing! I couldn't bear to think of her on her own, confused, terrified and at the mercy of a coven of bloodthirsty killers. But every single rescue attempt that Alice envisioned ended tragically, with the Volturi using the commotion as an excuse to intervene and force the gifted members of our coven into their guard, our family splintered with members permanently injured…and Bella destroyed or Aro's personal pet.

"But that means…that means she'll have to kill to survive," Esme whispered, voicing just one of the horrors we were facing.

"I don't see how a newborn could have the control to escape their creator and make it safely out of the city," Jasper contradicted Alice's assertion that Bella would somehow make her way to us by herself. "She won't know anything about being a vampire, the rules, the precautions she'll need to take. And she'll kill indiscriminately…she won't be able to help herself," he warned, and my shoulders began to shake with silent sobs as I saw the images accompanying his thoughts and remembered the shame I still felt from the years of my rebellion.

I would have done anything to protect Bella from the pain and regret her actions would cause her…actions over which she had no control. But if Alice's visions _were_ to be trusted, any attempt on our part to rescue Bella stood an unacceptable chance of causing my potential mate's destruction.

_~HIS~_

_**All together now...Poor Edward!**_

_**Next chapter in a few hours. **_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	7. Nightmare

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse and awfully glad that I can write guaranteed Happily Ever Afters for my stories. They're a bit harder to hold onto in real life.**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, for betaing this angsty little baby.**_

_**PS - I posted two chapters today as my way of trying to bring a bit of cheer to the Fandom...just in case you missed the earlier update notice and haven't read Ch 6 yet.  
**_

_**Words: 1641**_

Chapter 7

Nightmare

BPOV

A part of my mind clung vainly to the hope that my bizarre conclusion was wrong. Vampires didn't exist, and if they did, the government would have warned us about them, surely?

Yeah, like Area 51, another part scoffed, not that I knew much about aliens or random mythical creatures for that matter. I wasn't a sci-fi fan or a fantasy geek. I read Austen and Bronte and was well acquainted with the works of Shakespeare. What did I know about vampires?

Enough to be terrified, I realized, as I heard the sound of their approach. I hadn't had time to search for an escape, so all I could do was hide behind a large timber crate, even knowing it would do me no good. I could smell them—three distinct and very individual scents—all strangely appealing. Briefly distracted and more than a little curious, I raised my arm and sniffed at my own skin, shocked by the perfume-like aroma I exuded. My skin smelled like freesias and strawberries. They would find me easily.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the redheaded girl, Victoria, trilled in a singsong voice when they entered the warehouse, not finding me where they'd left me.

"It is all right, ma cherie, you're safe with us…now," the one who had introduced himself as Laurent practically crooned, the one who had bitten me. I didn't think so.

The sleazy one, James, ordered, "Come out!" when I didn't respond to Laurent's plea. "You're a part of my coven now, and you will learn to obey me."

I shivered, but stayed where I was.

"There's no need to be like that, James. I told you the hopes I have for the girl, and I would appreciate it if you did not undermine my chances." While Laurent appeared to contradict James, I noted his tone was wary…not confrontational. So James was the one in charge.

Afraid and angry, but knowing I didn't stand a chance against the three of them, I stood, my fists clenched at my sides. They blurred toward me, though I could make out their images quite distinctly every step of the way, surrounding me, crowding me as they looked me over. The girl seemed angry with what she saw, I had no idea why, but the two men's reactions caused my fear to ratchet up another notch…something I would have thought impossible. Laurent stared at me, seemingly dumbstruck, a ridiculously entranced look on his face, but it was James' reaction that had me truly worried.

"The transformation has worked wonders," he murmured. His pupils dilated, his scent deepening, darkening, and somehow, just as I knew that I needed blood, I also knew that he found me attractive…now that I was one of them. Reaching out a hand, he captured my face, twisting it toward him.

"James!" Laurent stepped forward, placing a restraining hand on the leader's forearm. "She's mine, remember? I saw her potential. I created her."

"And I always get what I want…remember? Or are you forgetting what I did to the last individual who tried to stand in my way?"

Fury vibrated off Laurent in waves, but he backed away, his nostrils flaring.

James smiled and leaned in close to my neck on the side where Laurent had bitten. Then he inhaled, drawing my new scent into his lungs, before releasing me with a slight shove so that I staggered backward, off balance.

"She smells of you, so I guess she _is_ yours, but I am going to want to share when you've had your fill."

The redheaded girl growled, spitting fire at me with her eyes, and Laurent stepped forward, his hands fisted.

"That's not how it works with mated vampires, and you know it," he hissed.

James shrugged and wandered over to grab the other girl. "Victoria and I are mated, and she doesn't mind, do you?" he demanded, pulling her roughly against him. "She knows that a man has needs that can't be met by just one woman."

I wanted to run and hide, but I stayed where I was, too afraid to move. A whimper escaped my throat, the itching, flaming burn demanding my attention.

"Please, I'm so thirsty," I heard myself beg, even though I didn't want anything to do with them…or from them.

Laurent approached, his expression gentle, not that I was taken in by it. He was just as much a psychopath as the other two, though he did seem to want to 'woo' me, rather than just force me.

"It is all right, ma cherie, we've brought you someone to drink. I left him in the corridor so we could talk…meet…first, or your attention would have been entirely diverted. But I'll go get him."

His words confirmed my suspicions, and I was horrified…but also mesmerized.

"It is difficult being a newborn vampire; your thoughts all over the place, your thirst uncontrollable, but you'll feel much better once you've had your first taste of blood. The rest will pale into insignificance."

"Wait!" I called, as he blurred toward the door. I wanted to ask him if there was another way. To tell him that I couldn't kill someone, no matter how much I needed to drink. The vampires on the TV sometimes drank from bags of blood, like from a blood bank, or maybe a butcher. I'd never been a fan of such shows so wasn't sure of my options.

A hysterical laugh escaped my lips at the thought, but then Laurent returned, an unconscious man thrown casually over his shoulder. I tried to focus on the fact that the bedraggled-looking man was a real person, with a family, a job, children, for all I knew, but my thoughts were soon overwhelmed by one thing and one thing only…the sound of the man's slow, erratic heartbeat.

Throwing myself against the wall, desperate to hold myself back, I dug my fingers into the concrete like it was butter, one more bizarre occurrence I'd have to think about later. For now, all I could think about was how desperately I needed something to drink.

Everything within me cried out for the man's blood, the irony not lost on me despite my semi-crazed state and my overwhelming thirst. I'd always been deathly afraid of blood…the sight…the smell. But not anymore.

"No," I whimpered. "I don't want to hurt anyone. Please…there must be another way."

Laurent cocked his head to the side, his dreadlocks swaying with the movement and brushing against his chest, bare between the open sides of his vest.

"How strange?" he murmured. "I would have expected you to wrench him from my arms and have torn him apart, by now." He shrugged, and carried the man closer, the heartbeat pounding so loudly in my ears it could have been my own.

"No!" I sobbed. "I can't do this. Please…I need something to drink, but not like this…please…"

Laurent stopped and tossed the man aside. My eyes followed, focusing on the pulse I could see beating beneath the pale, fragile looking skin of his neck.

"You want him. Just take him." Laurent shrugged. "He's a dead man, either way, and you'll have to drink sooner or later."

I shook my head, wrenching my gaze back to Laurent, who stared at me, his expression perplexed.

"You are a vampire now, ma cherie, the top of the food chain. The man is your prey, as are all humans. The sooner you get your first kill out of the way, the easier it will be, though I can't say as I've ever heard of a newborn having such a crisis of conscience before."

"Enough!" James bellowed and stalked toward us. "I know you want to woo the girl, Laurent, but she needs to understand who's boss around here and her place in the order of things. She may be at the top of the food chain, but she's at the bottom of the pile when it comes to _my _coven, and she _will_ obey."

"No! I won't!" I shouted, then cringed away from James' approach, frightened of what he would do to me for defying him. But he stalked right past me, and I watched in horror as he picked up the body of the unconscious man and ripped his throat out with his teeth.

I screamed...in anguish for the poor man whose heart began to stutter almost immediately and in horror at what I could feel happening to me...at what my new body seemed determined to do.

Ignoring my distress, James thrust the man's body under my nose as blood spurted everywhere: on my clothes, on my hands, on my face. I tried to resist, but my throat caught fire as if a blowtorch had been ignited inside my chest, and before I could stop myself, I buried my teeth into the open wound and began drinking the man's blood.

_Yes! _A strange new part of me triumphed at the amazing taste, scent, and euphoria that accompanied my drinking the blood, along with the blessed relief from my desperate thirst.

Another part of my mind, the part that still felt like me...like _Bella..._screamed for me to stop. But I couldn't. I kept on drinking, savoring the blood that tasted unlike anything I'd ever encountered or even imagined before.

The feeble thump of the man's heart slowed and then faded away, and I tried to tell myself that it wasn't my fault, that he was already as good as dead with his throat torn out and the internal injuries I suspected had been inflicted by my callous captors—it appeared that they'd actually been quite gentle with me as a human. But my heart broke at my actions, and silent cries resounded in my thoughts.

All too soon, and yet not soon enough, I drank the dead man dry.

Elated…despairing…I let his body fall to the ground and crawled over to lay huddled against the wall where I wept the strange, tear-less sobs that were all my new vampire body was capable of producing.

What had I done?

_~HIS~_

_**Not exactly cheery but hopefully a bit of a distraction. We're still at the Poor Bella stage, I'm afraid, but it won't last forever, I promise. I'm also thinking we're going to need a particularly fluffy and extremely satisfying HEA for this angsty little tale. Who's with me on that?**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	8. Defiance

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm trying to remind myself that it's the _Edward and Bella_ story that brought us all into the Twiverse in the first place._**

_**I'm glad you guys appreciated my double offering from yesterday. Not much of a break from the angst just yet, but it is getting exciting!  
**_

_**Thanks to my wonderful betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this angsty little baby.**_

_**PS - I think some of you might have missed Ch 6 since I posted two chapters quite close together yesterday. :)  
**_

_**Words: 1726**_

Chapter 8

Defiance

BPOV

It seemed like forever before I was given any peace. James continued to taunt me, his crude comments interspersed with demands for compliance to his rule. The redhead, Victoria, kept her distance, but if looks could kill my ordeal would have been over then and there. Laurent kept up his attempt to win me over by telling me all about the joys of life as a vampire and the wonderful future we would have together, but it would be a cold day in hell before I fell for his so-called charms. But I tried not to let my revulsion show, as it was obvious that he was the only one who might help me to escape.

When I was finally given a few minutes alone, I tried to put together everything I'd learned and come up with a plan.

Vampires were real, drank blood, were venomous, and could change a human if they bit them but did not drain their blood. They were incredibly fast, super strong, and virtually indestructible, didn't age, didn't need to sleep…or to use the bathroom. My head was still spinning over that little fact, though why it should stand out as particularly weird considering everything else, I didn't know.

An interesting and rather crucial piece of information was that vampires couldn't go out in the sun or they'd be burned to a cinder leaving behind nothing but a pile of ash. I assumed this meant they must only travel and hunt at night and was the reason why we were holed up in this warehouse during the day. Never being able to go out in the sunlight was a depressing thought, but it was a relief to know there was a suicide option for vampires...and that they weren't completely indestructible.

I kept thinking 'they' when the reality was now 'we,' but I had a feeling it would be a long, long time before I came to terms with what had happened to me.

Laurent also seemed to think that vampires possessed intellects that were vastly superior to mere humans, who were little more than cattle in his eyes, but all I felt was confusion. That was a newborn thing, he informed me, along with erratic moods and completely uncontrollable thirst..._not _that I appreciated the reference to my being a baby. My resisting the man's blood for as long as I had was like a vampire record or something, though I didn't think they'd be giving me a trophy any time soon. Compassion and self-control didn't appear to be highly sought-after character traits in vampires.

I tried not to think about the man whose blood I drank. One of the others had removed his body and the other foul-smelling stuff in the place. Super senses, including super smell, were also part and parcel of being "transformed into an enhanced being," Laurent told me, but if he was hoping for gratitude, he had a long wait ahead. And if he thought I was suddenly going to come over all smitten and declare that he was the love of my life, or un-life, or whatever the hell it was called, he was delusional. I'd heard everything he had to say about vampire mating, and I couldn't have cared less. All I wanted was to escape, find some other way besides hurting people to survive, and make my way home to Forks...and my dad.

Charlie would know what to do—I hoped—though I could only imagine how worried he must be. I tried not to think about Renee and the state of absolute panic she'd be in as it hurt too much. I still wasn't over the surprise of learning that I'd been acid-burning for three entire days…or the shock of anything else, for that matter.

Laurent approached, and it seemed that my far-too-short reprieve was over. Sitting very close beside me, he placed an arm around my shoulders and lent over to nuzzle my hair. I stifled my shudder of revulsion and resisted the urge to shrug him off, as James appeared, eyeing us shrewdly. The tension emanating from the vampire sitting beside me...my creator...was unmistakeable.

"So, how are the lovebirds getting along? Got the mating over with yet?" James sneered, and I tried not to let my trembling show. When Laurent rubbed his hand comfortingly up and down my arm, I actually appreciated it.

"We're doing very well, indeed, James, though some of us prefer a little privacy when it comes to the more intimate aspects of our lives."

James laughed, the sound frightening rather than humorous. "She'll have to get over her modesty issues when it's my turn. You know I like to put on a show."

I couldn't help it and ducked my head against Laurent's shoulder, no doubt giving him the completely wrong impression but overwhelmed by both fear and disgust. At seventeen, I was still a virgin and yet to have a serious relationship, not that either fact bothered me. I wasn't the sort of girl who was in a tremendous rush to grow up, having spent a good part of my childhood nurturing the adults in my life. But it was more than that. When I did give myself to someone, I wanted it to be because we were in love and not just experiencing your typical teenage infatuation. Renee made it sound like you couldn't fall in love in a lasting way until you were older, at least thirty, but I had hopes for it happening much sooner than that. I wanted a relationship with someone that would last, where sex was a culmination of the love and commitment we felt for one another, not the sole reason for being together in the first place.

Or, at least, I had.

At this particular point in time, my dream appeared completely unobtainable.

Escape was my only option, which seemed impossible with how closely my captors were watching me. But then my luck changed, a little, and hopefully not for the worse…though that hardly seemed likely.

The three of them went out to hunt while it was still light outside, promising to bring me back someone "extra tasty."

"We might be a while," Laurent explained. "But don't do anything rash. Remember, you can't go out in the sunlight, and James will only hunt you down if you leave. He has a _talent _for following a scent and will find you no matter where you go, and believe me, you won't like the consequences of making him angry."

I couldn't imagine them being any worse than what he already had planned for me, but the last thing I wanted was to have any of them follow me to Forks. If only I could come up with a way to convince James to let me go, but I had no idea how you reasoned with a psychopath, _especially _one with virtual super powers. Alternatively, I'd have to see if I could get Laurent to reveal more about James' tracking ability, as surely there must be some way to mask my scent so that he wouldn't be able to follow.

As much as I was repulsed by Laurent, I didn't _think _he was going to try and hurt me or force me to do anything I didn't want to...well, any more than he already had. He seemed determined to win my affection—something that was never going to happen—and as much as it galled me, I realized I'd have to string him along until I got the information I needed.

A shudder ran through me at the thought of pretending to _like_ the monster who'd done this to me, but I kept repeating Charlie's words in my head._..Stay strong, and d__o whatever it takes to get away._

I was curious as to how they could go out in the daytime if it was as dangerous as Laurent said. Either he was lying, which would make life easier when I _did_ make my escape...though from what I could remember of the myths and legends about vampires, the sun very well _could _be a legitimate danger...or they just had the skills and experience to keep themselves safe from exposure and certain death. Most cities had underground tunnels for water run-off and the like, and I imagined they might make use of those to move around, coming up inside other buildings to capture their victims. The risks meant I'd have to be extra careful until I knew for sure, traveling at nighttime to be on the safe side. But before I went anywhere near Forks, I needed to find out how to keep James off my trail.

After a long, boring afternoon during which I explored my prison, testing the door and discovering that I was, indeed, every bit as strong as they were—it had come off in my hand and taken quite a bit of manoeuvring to get back into place—they returned with another poor person in tow.

"Dinner is served, my dear," James intoned in a fake upper-class British accent as he threw the body of a young woman at my feet. She was dead, or just about, her heart beating erratically and far, _far_ too slowly. From the look and smell of her, I suspected she was an addict of some sort, but that didn't mean she deserved their cruel, inhuman treatment or the death they had in store for her…the death that _I_ was supposed to deliver.

Of course, a part of me wanted to do it, the part that craved blood and didn't care about anything else, but there was more to me than the monster they'd created. Swallowing the strange, sweet-tasting saliva that pooled in my throat—venom, I'd been told—I clamped down hard on the urge to attack and bite and drink.

_I will not hurt another person…I will not hurt another person…_I chanted inside my head, the action seeming to help strengthen my tenuous resolve.

"No, I won't bite her," I said firmly, shaking my head and backing away. I didn't care if I starved to death. I wasn't doing that again.

James blurred to within an inch of my face and grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me roughly.

"How dare you defy me!" he screamed with rage. "We've brought you blood, and you will drink, do you understand?"

"No, I won't!" I shouted back, shoving him away from me with all my might.

To my astonishment, he flew fifty feet across the cavernous space, crash-landing in the middle of a large crate and smashing it to pieces.

The other two blurred to my side and held my arms, reminding me that I had not one, but three opponents to deal with, all incredibly strong, fast, and with a hell of a lot more experience at fighting than I had.

"Don't do this," Laurent pleaded, close to my ear. "The woman is dead either way."

"But not at my hands," I vowed, bracing myself for the punishment I could see James was hell bent on inflicting…punishment in a variety of forms, if the darkening of his eyes was anything to go by.

At least I'd discovered one thing; I was strong, too—_really_ strong—and I wouldn't be going down without a fight.

_~HIS~_

**_Yay! Feisty Bella…and in a _good _way._**

_**Leaving reviews is a great antidote for all the sadness and anger swirling around the Twidom…well, it works for me. ;)  
**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	9. Despair

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Congratulations to all my British friends and readers. London did a mindbogglingly awesome job!**_

_**Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this angsty little baby. I wrote into this one adding about 500 words **_**after****_ it was beta'ed, so all errors are mine._**

_**Apologies in advance for this chapter. It's a tad angsty and cuts a little close to the bone considering what our poor boy must be going through. Sorry...**_

_**On a brighter note, I've managed to attach the banner that SoapyMayhem made for HIS to the summary above. If you'd like to watch it in blinky form, the link is on my profile page. :D**_

_**Words: 1452**_

Chapter 9

Despair

EPOV

My life had devolved to three things: poring over every detail of Alice's visions, repeatedly; trying to silence the screams that sounded in my head; and attempting _not _to take my torment out on my equally bereft family. I'd never known such anguish or impotent rage before in my existence.

We watched Bella's life unfold, not in real time but ahead of time, and in multiple, worst-case scenarios. Depending on the direction the visions took, we were able to discern what had most probably transpired, but we were guessing, and the possibilities were terrifying.

One thing we knew for certain was that a fight was brewing, in fact, inevitable. No matter which scenario Alice followed, Bella stuck to her guns and refused to harm another human. My pride in her was matched only by Jasper's astonishment at the level of reason and control she was exhibiting for a newborn and her determination to stay true to her human self. Carlisle was the only other vampire I'd ever heard of who had managed to resist the utterly overwhelming temptation of human blood without the aid of other, like-minded vampires to assist him, and he at least had an inkling of what had happened to him before it occurred. Bella had been thrown in blind.

My current fear was founded in the various possibilities we'd seen in relation to the fight she could not avoid with James—the cold-hearted son of a bitch I couldn't wait to tear to pieces. I planned on burning him alive, bit by bit, saving his head for last so he could watch his own destruction. Laurent deserved no less, though I was oddly grateful for the respect he was showing Bella in his misguided attempts to woo her…fool that he was. It was clear she was not his mate and that she was utterly repulsed by him, but he was too blinded by her phenomenal beauty and intrinsic charm to recognize her disinterest.

If she'd been his mate, Bella would have had no choice to forgive him or, at least, to work toward that end. And he would have done everything in his power to get her the hell away from James, protecting her with his life if necessary. In reality, the weaselly coward was doing next to nothing to protect Bella from James' insults and crudely provocative comments and didn't seem to be making any plans to avoid his coven leader's abusive intentions.

All we could assume was that having spent so long with a mated couple whose bond had been utterly perverted by the dominant member's deviant and psychopathic nature, that Laurent was unable to recognize that his own attraction to and feelings for Bella were completely self-serving. His concern was clearly _not _for Bella's well-being, as it should have been if they were truly mated, but steeped in self-gratification. But at least he had not stooped so low as to force her to submit to his lust.

For that, I would make his death a little less painful than what I had planned for James...if Alice ever gave me the go-ahead to actually _do _something, her visions immobilizing me as completely as if I was the one that had been dismembered.

If things ended badly, I knew I would never forgive myself for abiding by Alice's instructions, my sister looking to me with anguish in her eyes when she envisioned the outcome if that was to occur, my death assuredly following Bella's as swiftly as I could make it happen.

I wasn't deliberately trying to hurt Alice knowing, as I did, that she was trying so hard to make things right. She blamed herself for not being open with me about Bella's significance in the first place, but I blamed us all for allowing her the indulgence of keeping vital information from the family. If I'd known that my future mate was on her way to Forks—and I'd been convinced of that knowledge within minutes of seeing the visions of Bella and I together when Alice finally shared them—I would have insisted Alice watch her carefully...and continuously. That way, we would have surely seen the abduction before it occurred and prevented it. But Alice had avoided looking for Bella's future for the week before her arrival, not wanting to accidentally alert me ahead of time and lose the element of surprise...to spoil my _fun._

Of one thing we were all certain, we'd been foolish in the way we'd utilized Alice's gift, and our days of naïve complacency were over. For now, we had to deal with what had already happened, making our decisions as a family with full disclosure of what Alice predicted would occur.

While far too many of her visions ended appallingly, causing me to bitterly regret our decision to wait, there were enough possibilities where Bella survived the fight that was brewing, and was able to make good her escape, for Alice to have been right in directing us to hold back. It was small comfort when I knew that, at this very moment, my mate was fighting for her life without me there to help her.

The nightmarish possibilities where Bella _didn't _make it would haunt me for all eternity even if they never came true. Possibilities where Bella was overpowered, hurt,and even destroyed. The ones where she was raped before she managed to escape were almost more painful, as I would have to carry the shame of my inaction with me for as long as I lived while trying to somehow make it up to Bella for my complete and utter failure to protect her.

James was a madman and his utter depravity knew no end. If it hadn't been too late, if the events in question weren't unfolding even as we watched, I would have damned the consequences to us all and done everything in my power to get to Bella, to save her, even though, according to Alice's visions, the odds were stacked entirely against us.

"It doesn't make sense," I growled, repeating a sentiment we'd all expressed over the previous few hours. "There are seven of us and only three of them," I added bitterly.

"But they're willing to take the fight public," Jasper reminded me unnecessarily, though I knew his motivation was to offer support...however hollow. Our rescue attempt would have turned into an all out brawl with the nomads not hesitating to burst through the walls of the warehouse and into the tenement area nearby. Innocent bystanders, loitering teenagers, defenseless children playing in an alley, would see and be destroyed...if not by James and his cohort, then by the Volturi who would come to clean up the mess...and take retribution on our family.

If we'd tried to save Bella like we all desperately wanted to, we would have been ensuring our own and quite possibly Bella's destruction or enslavement to the Volturi. I knew that...I understood it theoretically...but I honestly didn't know how much longer I could stand by and wait, and I couldn't stifle a groan of agony.

Carlisle came to stand beside me where I'd frozen in place, staring sightlessly into the night.

"I'd tell you everything will be all right, but I can only pray that it will be so," he murmured, patting my shoulder.

I hoped he was right, that God would not be so cruel as to bring my mate into my life, after all these long and lonely years, only to take her from me in the worst way possible, knowing I would see her suffering and relive it eternally. As it was, I was having a hard time trusting a god who would allow such an innocent, beautiful girl as Bella, to be changed against her will into a soulless creature such as myself and then put her through the hell on earth as she was experiencing.

"You'll have to reconsider your stance on the issue of vampire souls," Carlisle added, startling me. I was the mind reader in our family, and I preferred to keep it that way. But my creator, friend and father figure knew me well enough to read me even without a special gift.

"Why do you say that?" I rasped, my voice hoarse with pent up emotion.

"Because I think you're in for a run for your money. That girl's not going to put up with any nonsense." He smiled, his tone wry. "Can you honestly say that you think she's lost her soul considering the decisions she's making, all by herself, without any help or guidance?"

His words gave me something else to think about, something to hope for. And I found myself praying also, that Bella's feistiness would not be her downfall but give her the courage she would need to escape…and survive.

_~HIS~_

_**Geez...more angst than any of us need at the moment, but I wrote this ages ago when all was sweetness and light in the Twiverse. Sigh...**_

_**I know some of you won't understand the Cullens' decision not to attempt a rescue, even with what Alice is seeing. I've tried to make their waiting feasible, but I have to admit that it's not sitting too well with me either. My plan for this story was to give Bella a chance to show what she's made of and take control of her own destiny, so rest assured, she's about to kick some serious a**. I hope you'll forgive me for having them act this way, though I always felt that the Cullens make some pretty crappy decisions. High School repeatedly? Who would ever choose that?**_

_**xxx TLSue**_

_**PS – your reviews and support of this story have been absolutely awesome. Thank you so much!**_


	10. Instinct

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I haven't slept properly in days – **_**must _stop checking Twitter and depressing myself_****_ – and I have a tummy bug. Ugh!_**

_**Thanks for your support and understanding for last chapter. A few reviewers were pretty annoyed with the Cullens for not going to rescue Bella, but I tried to make it an admittedly dreadful but unavoidable decision on their part. I don't want it to become a big deal, but I'll address it a bit more in the chapter after this one, so hopefully that will help. **_

_**I forgot to mention last chapter that I rewrote the section in Ch 8 (Defiance) that dealt with Bella learning that vampires couldn't go out in the sun so as to make her seem less gullible. Plus, I've given her a more compelling reason for not running away while her captors were out if you're interested enough to have a reread. **_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this angsty baby. Once again, I couldn't resist expanding this chapter quite a bit, so all errors of a grammatical (and plot!) nature are mine. :D**_

_**Words: 1350**_

Chapter 10

Instinct

BPOV

James came in low, hard, and fast, striking a blow to my stomach that caused the air to rush from my lungs.

It hurt...but nowhere near as much as I would have expected. A blow like that would have surely meant my death if I'd still been human, but my altered body was immeasurably tougher. Not needing to breathe helped, an aspect I'd experimented with a little after Laurent had imparted that bizarre piece of information, as I'd have been gasping for breath and completely incapacitated otherwise.

I braced myself as James continued to land punch after painful punch to my chest and stomach, but none coming near my face. He clearly didn't want my appearance marred for whatever he had planned next. Stunned and completely lacking in any fighting experience, I let him pummel me, not knowing what else to do.

"Enough, James. She's just a girl!" Laurent cried in my defense, though he continued to hold me in place while James struck me repeatedly, so I didn't think much of his commitment to my protection.

"Girl or not, she'll learn to obey…and satisfy me," James grunted between delivering more vicious blows. One struck my side, and I felt my ribs break, causing me to cry out in agony. But then they healed up almost immediately and the pain faded away...which was something, I supposed.

Backing up for a moment, and with a particularly brutal look on his face, James swung around in a circle and then landed a kick to my stomach that should have sent me flying...but didn't. It hurt, a _lot, _but it was James who staggered backward, not me, which gave me the seed of an idea.

Laurent was right, enough was enough. I might know next to nothing about how to fight and have no chance against the three of them, but that didn't mean I should just let James do whatever the hell he wanted. Not knowing if it would have any effect, but hopeful after the way I'd stood up to his massive kick, I wrenched my arms away from Laurent and Victoria, using all my strength to try and break their hold and push them backwards.

It worked!

Just like when I'd shoved James earlier, their bodies flew up and away from me, landing hard at opposite ends of the warehouse. James paused for a moment, clearly surprised, and I took the opportunity to crouch into a defensive position. While I would have loved to pull some crazy martial arts moves, spinning around like a character out of a movie and delivering a roundhouse kick to the jerk's head, I didn't normally have the coordination to manage a gym volleyball class without injuring myself or someone else, and I couldn't predict the outcome of such a radical move. Instead, I brought my hands up in front of me and made fists, tucking my thumbs out of the way like Charlie had shown me one time, and did my best to protect my face and torso. Whenever James got close enough, I lashed out with all my newfound might, surprising myself when I landed blows to his body and face and head. Before long, James was the one on the defensive and feeling the pain of repeated, punishing blows…_my_ blows!

I was stunned by how easy it was, by how _strong _I was, and if it had just been the two of us, I actually would have won quite easily. But of course, Victoria, James' loving mate, wasn't about to stand by and see her charming boyfriend pummeled into the ground. That she was also motivated by a completely unreasonable jealousy and hated my very existence may have given her a little impetus when it came to her attack.

Latching onto my back, she bit, scratched and basically went to town on me. The bites stung like crazy, and I had to waste precious energy and time hitting back at her over my head and shoulders or pummeling her legs with my fists where they squeezed me around the middle. She didn't cope well with the blows I aimed her way, crying out and swearing viciously whenever I landed a hit. Screaming in my ear, she called me every obscenity in the book, and a few I'd never read, as if her sleazebag boyfriend beating the crap out of a me and wanting to rape me was somehow my fault. Ignoring her tirade, I managed to stop her from doing too much damage, but she slowed me down enough to give James the edge he'd lost.

Having to fight on two fronts quickly gave James the upper hand again, and he struck me with lightning quick blows that seemed to come from everywhere, disorienting me with the pain and putting me off balance. When he started taunting me with the disgusting things he planned on doing to me once I was beaten into submission, I decided that maybe trying some crazy ninja moves wasn't such a bad idea after all. Increasingly desperate and with nothing to lose, I spun around as fast as I could, knocking James flying with Victoria's body and dislodging her in the process. At the last possible second, I snatched hold of one of her arms, and then I grabbed hold of James foot as he kicked out at me. Acting on instinct—and keeping some of the random things Laurent had told me in mind—I wrenched both Victoria's arm and James' leg, twisting with all my might as I shoved their bodies away from me with a series of punishing kicks. The combination of moves tore Victoria's arm right out of its socket and James' leg off above the knee.

All three of us fell back in shock, but this time, Victoria and James were the ones doing the screaming, not me. I was doing my best not to fall apart as my human side was feeling fairly traumatized by the beating I'd just received and horrified by what I'd done and the fact that I was holding two twitching, dismembered, venom-oozing limbs in my hand. At least there wasn't any blood, as I wasn't at sure how I would have coped with that. My new vampire side was quite satisfied with the outcome of the fight and had the presence of mind not to let go of those limbs, no matter how much I wanted to throw them far, far away.

Another fascinating little piece of information Laurent had imparted was that vampires could be reassembled after dismemberment, as long as the limbs or body parts weren't thrown into a fire. I imagined just leaving them out in the sun to be reduced to ash would be sufficient, _if _he'd been telling the truth.

James and Victoria continued to curse me and writhe on the ground in obvious and well-earned agony, that same sticky fluid oozing from the ends of their ragged, torn-off stumps. Meanwhile, Laurent, pathetic coward that he was, eyed me warily, not bothering to go to the aide of his friends.

For a long moment, all I could do was stare at the bizarre scene as reaction set in. My vampire side might have been determined not to give in to James' and Victoria's threats and cries for me to relieve their suffering and return their severed limbs. But I wasn't tough enough to stop the strangely dry sobs that caused my chest to heave as shock and relief overwhelmed me.

I'd won! I'd beaten them. And after four-and-a-half hellish days—though it felt much, _much,_ longer—I finally had the upper hand.

I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish everything I needed to do: prevent James from tracking me; find something to drink that _didn't _involve hurting anyone—my thirst flaming unbearably now that the fight was over; and make my way out of the city without drawing attention or getting fried by the sun when it rose. But one thing I knew without doubt. I was going home to Forks...and Charlie...and nothing and nobody was going to stop me.

_~HIS~_

_**Fight scenes are not my forte, so I hope that was okay. No dramatic over-the-top talent for Bella this time around, just newborn strength and a bit of luck. But there could be some minor tweaking of Bella's canon talent ahead. She didn't exactly have the best introduction to vampire life, so I think it makes sense for her ability to have manifested a little differently.**_

_**Thanks so much for all your lovely reviews, recs, tweets, and support. You guys are wonderful. :-)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	11. Ingenious

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. **_**_The Twidom is hurting, but I'm trusting that all the wonderful friendships we've made will help us weather the storm._  
**

_**Thanks to my betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this angsty little baby. I can't seem to help writing in and expanding these chapters before posting (trying to make sense of the nonsensical - remind me again why SM included a clairvoyant in her story?), so I apologize for any grammatical errors. They're all mine.**_

_**Words: 1698**_

Chapter 11

Ingenious

EPOV

"Oh, thank God…she's gotten away," Alice's cry brought us running from the various corners of the house where we'd retreated in our distress. I was the closest, refusing to venture far from Alice's and Jasper's sides, not that the small distance made a difference to my ability to see her thoughts.

"How did she do it? Is she all right?" Esme's concerns were echoed by the others, while I focused on deciphering the images running through Alice's mind.

Bella had fought like a champion, her graceful movements lethal in their effectiveness, the outcome far better than anything we could have hoped for. But, as was typical, the actual events weren't any that Alice's earlier visions had predicted, revealing themselves to her almost as they happened.

I couldn't fault Alice for that, as she was the first to admit that trying to predict how a fight would go was almost impossible with multiple decisions made in the heat of the moment. For now, all I cared about was what Bella decided to do next.

Refusing to heed Laurent's plea that she destroy the severed limbs she held as ransom against James' continued threats, Alice's continuing visions showed Bella taking them with her in her escape, warning the two seriously injured vampires not to waste time looking for her but to focus on finding the limbs she would hide somewhere in the city.

Fascinated and awed by Bella's courage and ingenuity, I watched the events unfolding moments before they actually occurred...

"That's sweet of you, my love, but we need to destroy them or, eventually, they'll come after us," Laurent warned her, triggering a round of screamed obscenities from his coven members and a look of disbelief from Bella.

"You'd kill your own friends?" she demanded.

"I'd do anything for you," he offered, moving closer and not seeming to notice that Bella was backing away. "You're my mate, and now I don't have to share you. We can go wherever you like...together…but we need to destroy James or he will eventually track us down."

"I don't want to go anywhere with you, you maniac!" Bella screamed at him, the surprise on Laurent's face quite comical. "You kidnapped me, _tortured _me, and turned me into a vampire, and then you held me while your psycho leader beat the crap out of me! You were going to let him rape me!"

"I had no choice," the coward tried to defend himself. "But it can just be the two of us now. I can help you to learn how to hunt and survive as a vampire. There are rules you need to know, places to avoid. Besides, we have to stay together now...we're mated."

"You are _not_ my mate or my friend or my anything, do you understand?" Bella hissed. "I don't want anything to do with a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer, so you better stay the hell away from me, or so help me, I'll rip your head off!"

"Not if I find you first," James vowed from where he writhed in agony on the floor. Laurent flinched at his coven leader's threat, spared one last glance at Bella, and then slunk off into the night like the coward that he was, leaving his creation to fend for herself...

"She's heading to the wharf," Alice informed us, snapping out of the vision after scanning rapidly ahead. "I think she's going to hide their limbs on a freighter ship, actually two separate ships—one going to China, the other to the Horn of Africa—which should keep them occupied for a while. They won't be wasting time following her, that's for sure."

"Incredible," Jasper murmured, impressed and perplexed by Bella's control and foresight.

Emmett whistled. "That's, like, ingenious and really cool. Your girl's going to keep you on your toes, Edward."

"She sure is," I agreed. For the first time in days, I felt a smile stretch my lips, though my continuing fears and concerns kept it from mirroring Emmett's face-splitting grin. "But I don't want those three occupied; I want them destroyed. As soon as Bella is safe, we need to take them out _permanently._"

Carlisle was worried about the potentially rash and decidedly vengeful nature of my intentions, but then he considered how he would react if it had been Esme held captive and treated in such a manner. With an almost imperceptible nod, I knew I had his support, Jasper's and Emmett's thoughts in total agreement with my plan, though it was Rosalie that reminded us of our priorities.

"So, _now_ can we go help the poor girl?" she demanded, and the others waited while Alice scanned the future based on this, the best possible of outcomes.

I was done with waiting and grabbed the keys to the Volvo, heading for the door before Alice had finished scanning.

"If we hurry, we can find her before she reaches the outskirts of the city," I called as the others raced to catch up.

"No wait!" Alice cried, but I was having none of it. Bella was free from her attackers, and as far as I was concerned, there was nothing stopping us from finding and helping her.

Typically, Alice's visions said otherwise.

"Please, Edward; you know that won't work," she called after me, and I growled my fury loudly into the night, startling the birds from the trees for miles around the house, setting flocks of deer to flight, and the creatures of the forest scurrying to find safety from the enraged predator in their midst.

"We can try, but we're not going to find her," Alice insisted on voicing the ridiculous content of her visions.

"She's _my mate,_ and you don't think I'll be able to track her scent?" I argued, my words hissing viciously from between my teeth.

"You _should _be able to...easily," Alice agreed. "Any one of us should, but my visions haven't changed and still show us meeting her just outside of Forks."

"Then your visions are wrong!" I shouted, hoping like hell that the earlier ones hadn't been and that Bella had, indeed, successfully escaped. If I found out my refraining from going to my mate's aide had been in vain, that she'd been harmed or killed due to our inaction—well, other than the beating that I still couldn't believe we'd allowed to occur—it was a good thing that I'd be bringing my existence to an end as soon as possible, as I would _never _be able to forgive myself.

In the agonizing hours while we'd waited, hours during which Bella was being held captive either directly or through fear and deception, I'd determined exactly how I would rid the earth of my presence if she did not survive. Carlisle had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide after his change, but the one method he'd not been able to bring himself to endure was self-immolation. Unafraid of the pain—any physical agony I would suffer paling into insignificance compared to the never-ending torment I'd experience if Bella was lost—I planned to build the hottest of fires and force myself to stand in the middle of its destructive flames until my body was reduced to a pile of ash...which was all it would deserve to be. My only concern was that my family might feel compelled to prevent my self-destruction. So I would have to make sure I changed my mind about my destination several times, waiting until I was far away, too far for Alice to see in time and intervene, before I acted.

"Edward!" Jasper's hand on my shoulder startled me, his mental and verbal shouting of my name snapping me out of my reverie. "Bella is all right...she's safe. We don't know why Alice can't see her until she gets all the way to Forks, but she's unharmed when she arrives here tomorrow morning, which means she _will _make it through the night."

A sob caught in my throat. "But I need to see her _now,_" I rasped hoarsely, all my bitter bravado collapsing with the reality of her continued absence.

"We can't let her do this alone anymore," I pleaded. "She must be terrified, and what if she comes across a human...which she is bound to in the middle of a city, Jazz. She'll never forgive herself if she loses control and kills a human. I can't stand by any longer, knowing that she's out there alone, thirsty, afraid..." Shaking my head, I couldn't go on.

"Then we go and look for her, bro," Emmett declared, reaching to pat my shoulder. "There are seven of us. If we can't find one little newborn, then we're a pretty pathetic bunch of vampires if you ask me."

"Is it safe for us to do so…safe for Bella?" Carlisle, ever cautious and protective of his family—Bella now included—queried.

"I guess so," Alice shrugged, her tone wary. "Laurent's headed for Canada and won't be back anytime soon. James and Victoria are going to be too busy making their way to the wharf and searching all the different ships Bella climbed aboard to go after her—that was a stroke of genius, I might add, so I wouldn't underestimate her even though she's young. It's just that nothing has _changed, _and I don't see us finding her...or anything else she does tonight, once she leaves the wharf. But she still seems to be okay when she gets to Forks in the morning."

"Then we go to Seattle, and we try to find her," Carlisle declared, and I grasped his arm in a sign of gratitude.

"Sounds like we're going on a wild goose chase," Rosalie grumbled, even as she grabbed a second set of keys and followed us to the garage. "We'll just have to be back in time for when Bella rocks up here tomorrow."

"True," Alice agreed, looking to me with a sympathetic expression. "Unless Bella changes her mind about whatever she's got planned tonight, in which case anything could happen."

"And you wonder why I find it hard to trust your visions," I muttered, shaking my head and considering all the things that could go wrong for a newborn vampire alone in a strange city.

_~HIS~_

**_Hmm…clairvoyancy doesn't seem like a very exact science, though I suppose it would be easier if there was no such thing as free will. _**

**_Kind of heartbreaking thinking of Edward planning for the worst and roaring his pain into the night. _****_At least this story is guaranteed a HEA. I know my poor aching heart needs one!_**

**_I hope the daily distraction is helping you guys a little. _**

**_Thanks for the reviews. They are always very much appreciated. _**

**_xxx TLSue_**


	12. Escape

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'll always love the Twiverse, and I'm working on moving on...**_

_**Thanks for all the reviews. Sorry I don't reply very often, though I try to get back to you if you have a specific question. Daily updates fitted around real life and writing new chapters is a tad hectic!**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this angsty little baby. Once again, lots of writing in and expanding, so my apologies for the grammatical errors. ;)**_

_**Words: 2172 **_

Chapter 12

Escape

BPOV

So far, surprisingly, so good, I thought as I clambered with ridiculous ease up the side of a tall building. Some things about being a vampire were turning out to be unexpectedly cool, but I wasn't about to start singing the Hallelujah Chorus, as my Gran would've said. The negatives still far, far outweighed the positives.

I felt pretty pleased with myself for how I'd handled my escape from my brutal captors. I hadn't set out to partially dismember them, and I had no intention of stooping to their murderous level once they were disabled, though I wondered if I'd done the right thing not attempting to take them out permanently...not _killing _them.

It's not that I didn't consider it. I'd have been doing the world a favor if I'd destroyed them, saving countless human lives. If I'd accidentally killed one of them in the fight, if that were even possible, I wouldn't have regretted it. But when it came right down to it, I just didn't have what it takes to murder in cold blood.

Warily backing away with their twitching, writhing limbs in my hands, I'd watched as they slowly got to their feet, wincing and groaning in pain. With vampire reflexes, James had balanced quite well on one foot, though I had a feeling that hopping rather than running was going to slow him down a little. Of course, Victoria still had both legs and one good arm, reminding me that killing them probably wouldn't be easy. I certainly didn't fancy having one of _my _limbs ripped off, and I could guarantee they wouldn't show me any mercy if they got the upper hand a second time. I might have been able to accomplish their destruction if I'd let Laurent stay to help me, but that would have put me in league with him, not to mention stooping to his gutless, heartless level. And I was better than that, determined to hold onto my humanity no matter what had happened to me.

"Stay back, or I won't just hide your limbs, I'll burn them, and you'll never get them back!" I'd warned, and they'd kept their distance, though James couldn't resist hurling insults.

"Whatever, jerk," I'd muttered over my shoulder as I made my escape, moving quickly through the night, my new strength, speed, and astonishing agility making it easy even with my gruesome baggage.

Emerging into the night, I smelled the salty sea air, and realizing how close the warehouse was to the Puget Sound gave me an idea. I wanted them occupied for a long while…long enough for my scent, which is what I assumed James could track, to be washed away so that they couldn't work out where I'd gone. As far as I could tell, they didn't know my name or anything about me, which was a relief, as the last thing I wanted was to have evil killers follow me home to Forks.

Looking down from my vantage point atop the building I'd just climbed, I spotted the Port with its huge container ships, some berthed, others at anchor in the Sound, and others moving along the water on their way to the Pacific ocean and trading routes to Asia and the rest of the world.

Moving with both speed and stealth, I made my way to the wharf, steering well clear of the alluring scent of the night guards. Slipping into the dark, murky water with James' leg and Victoria's arm in my hands was, without doubt, one of the scariest things I'd ever done, but I could think of no other way to keep my attackers occupied for long enough for me to escape and reach home without them picking up the scent and following me.

Moving from one massive container ship to another, I made sure to leave venom from my disgusting cargo dripping in my wake which would hopefully confuse James and Victoria as to my final destination...or, at least, slow them down a little. When I was reasonably confident I'd left a sufficiently confusing trail, I swam out to various ships in the Sound, leaving traces of venom on the decks, checking manifests when I could find them, and eventually deciding on one that was already under way, destined for China. Hiding in the shadows, I held my breath whenever a sailor came too close, searching for the best place to hide James' leg. Finding what seemed like a good spot, deep within the bowels of the ship, I placed it in a deep, dark recess, hopefully far from human reach or discovery, as I could only imagine what the sailors would make of an almost indestructible vampire limb. After checking out a few more ships, I found one that was headed for Africa, and I hid Victoria's arm in an equally dark and difficult to get to location before gladly slipping overboard and making my way back to land.

If I'd been still been human, just getting into the dark, cold water would have been a problem let alone accomplishing the impossible task of scaling the high, vertical sides of the enormous ships. But I accomplished it all with surprising ease and speed, not even tired for all my efforts. Now I just had to hope that James and Victoria wouldn't find the limbs too quickly or decide to come after me first in order to force me to reveal where I'd hidden them.

Sneaking away from the wharf, my thoughts repeated like a litany in my mind: _please don't let them find me, please don't let them find me. _After a while, I altered my plea, adding a request that I not hurt anyone and that I evade discovery in general.

I wasn't sure where this sudden urge to pray was coming from, though I supposed it wasn't all that surprising considering what I'd just been through. But I felt oddly compelled to keep it up, repeating my plea to remain undiscovered over and over again even as I made my way across the tops of tall stacks of containers.

Reaching the edge of the Port, I huddled in the shadows and tried to figure out how to make my way home without getting caught in the daylight and being burned to a crisp or giving in to the thirst for blood that was worsening by the minute. I'd considered trying to get the poor girl they'd brought for me to drink from to a hospital, though I'd worried that carrying her was beyond my very fragile control. But by the time the fight was over, she was dead. My immediate response had been relief, which made me feel bad, but at least her death wasn't directly on my conscience…unlike the poor man I tried not to think about but whose face haunted my erratic, but somehow multi-layered, thoughts.

From my reckoning, I had a few hours left before daybreak to escape the city and find somewhere to hide, that was if I could work out which direction I was supposed to take. First up, I needed a map, clothes that didn't stink, and the address of the nearest butcher shop or slaughterhouse. With the way my throat was burning, finding blood soon became my number one priority…not that it proved easy. My superior sense of smell was no help, becoming quickly overwhelmed by the odors of the city, but at least there were few people around at this time of night. Avoiding them was easy enough; I just steered away from the mouthwatering aromas that drew me closer.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life...resisting the lure of human blood...but my strategy seemed to work, keeping me from accidentally stumbling too close to any people.

Pleased with my ingenuity, I eventually located an abattoir in an industrial area on the edge of the city. Gaining entry was child's play now that I could run like lightning, leap fences like a gazelle, and tear open metal doors and locks like they were made of rice paper. My efforts left a heck of a mess in my wake, but I'd never been fingerprinted, and I was fairly certain that I moved too quickly for the security cameras to track. There wasn't much else I could do, and I just hoped the destruction wouldn't be traced back to me. Fortunately, the refrigerated area where I found some stores of blood from what I assumed were slaughtered cattle wasn't covered by the cameras…but that's where my good luck ended.

The blood tasted absolutely disgusting, and I vomited and spat what I'd gulped down all over the concrete floor of the refrigerated room. The man's blood had been warm and delicious, but this was utterly repulsive. I couldn't imagine anything improving the taste, but I decided to see if heating it would make it bearable.

"Why couldn't real vampires eat normal food and just supplement it with blood," I muttered to myself as I located a container and filled it with blood. I was sure I'd seen a movie once that showed vampires eating food and drinking blood out of wine glasses. But Laurent had been adamant that blood was the _only _thing I would be able to consume...or ever want to again.

Sighing at this disheartening state of affairs, I made my way as stealthily as I could to a nearby worker's lounge and kitchen. Grabbing a hard hat from a pile near the door, I tucked my hair inside, kept my head down in case there was a camera in the room and waited impatiently for the blood to heat in a microwave. My thirst was unbearable, as if I'd spent days lost in the desert, and I considered trying the coffee and tea—or water from the tap for that matter—but I instinctively knew they were no longer an option for me and shied away from an attempt that was doomed to fail.

The warmed blood was vile, but it did what I needed it to do: quenched my thirst and stayed down, even though my stomach cramped in protest. Feeling equal parts relief and dismay, I considered the utter bleakness of a future where I was forced to rely on such foul-tasting sustenance. But at least no lives were lost to keep me alive this way, other than the cows.

"Thank God I'm not a vegetarian," I muttered while filling some storage containers with blood. After hunting up a cooler bag, I packed my 'lunch' and made my way back around the edge of the city. Eventually finding a Walmart, for the second time in one night I committed a crime...probably a felony...breaking in to steal clothing, shoes, a backpack, and most important of all, a map, compass, and watch. I could only imagine how upset my dad was going to be with me for all the breaking, entering, and theft, but it was telling him about the man I'd played a part in murdering that I dreaded. The disappointment I was sure to see in his eyes tempered the relief and joy I felt at knowing I would soon see him again.

With daylight fast approaching, I found an abandoned warehouse close to the Olympic Peninsula and, therefore, Forks. It would be a long, lonely day, but at the speed I could now swim and run, I calculated it wouldn't take me long to cover the distance to my new home town once night fell. All I had to worry about was whether or not I'd be able to resist human blood when I smelled it up close.

Testing my resolve on my own dad didn't seem like the smartest move, and I wracked my brain for a way to desensitize myself before I took the risk of approaching him. I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to force myself to drink any more of the blood I'd stolen from the abattoir, and I started wondering where I might find a blood bank. Stealing blood intended for the sick was a rotten thing to do, but at least the blood was donated, the givers still living.

Wrestling with a range of unpalatable options, I changed into the clothes I'd stolen, determined to never take clean underwear for granted again. Unsure exactly how much exposure to light a vampire could tolerate without being harmed, and unwilling to risk being burned again after the ordeal of my change, I made my way into the deepest, darkest part of the building to wait out the day. Even then, a few rays of light managed to penetrate the layers of steel and concrete, and I watched them track slowly across the floor as I huddled in the shadows.

While I was proud of myself for what I'd managed to achieve and relieved to be free of my psychotic captors, I couldn't help feeling overwhelmed by everything that had happened to and sick and tired of feeling so damned scared.

_~HIS~_

_**I don't blame her for being scared, but damn...she's a brave girl. I know I couldn't have swum out to those ships, and as for drinking cow's blood...ugh!**_

_**xxx TLSue**_

_**PS – I didn't split this extra long chapter into two...so worthy of a review?**_


	13. Shielded

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just a poor fanfic writer trying to navigate the ethical and moral minefield of Ms Meyer's epic creation. I promise, I don't have anything against sailors!**_

_**Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this angsty little tale. Lots of post beta additions and rewrites mean all the errors are well and truly mine. **_

_**Words: 1799**_

Chapter 13

Shielded

EPOV

The night spent searching Seattle was one of the most frustrating of my existence. Despite the fact that a little over four days had passed since Bella's abduction, there were still traces of her human scent in the alley near the hotel—the most amazing combination of freesias, strawberries, and sheer delight I'd ever encountered. While not easy, we managed to follow it and the faded scents of the vampires who'd taken her to the warehouse where she'd been held captive. The place was abandoned but redolent with the scents of its prior occupants. But, fortunately, the evidence pointed to Alice's vision being correct with Bella having succeeded in defeating and escaping from her captors.

A heated discussion ensued when the suggestion was made that we should split up, with half the family tracking Bella and the other half her wounded captors, the ichor-like venom from their injuries giving us an easy trail to follow. Esme and Carlisle wanted us to search for Bella as a group, increasing our odds of success and ensuring our safety. Emmett, Rose, and Jasper were hell bent on finding and destroying Bella's attackers as quickly as possible so that they could not come after her. Alice's visions showed we'd be unsuccessful in either task, which made so little sense I feared her gift had stopped working altogether. I was torn, desperate to go after Bella and make sure she was safe while eager to take retribution on the monsters that had treated her with such contemptuous evil.

My concerns for her safety and the overwhelming desire I had to be with my mate made the decision for me, and without wasting any more time arguing, I began to follow her scent. The others came with me, as it made sense that the injured nomads would track Bella also, intent on retrieving their missing limbs. But when we arrived at the wharfs, things became…_confusing. _

Bella had laid down multiple false trails, and while we knew not to waste time following them and to look for the trail that showed her moving _away _from the Port, it wasn't that easy. Every time we thought we thought we'd found the path she'd taken, it petered out, leading us down one dead end after another.

"I don't understand," Jasper grumbled, his frustration rivaling mine. "She had to go _somewhere_ as she's clearly not still in the area."

"Could James and Victoria have found her?" Esme voiced the concern that none of us wanted to face. We'd found the place where they'd slipped into the Puget Sound but, of course, were unable to track them through the water. We had a fair idea what they'd be up to though…searching the many container ships in the port and heading out to sea for their missing limbs.

"Bella is unharmed," Alice declared emphatically. "I still see her finding her way to Forks tomorrow morning, and she appears to be fine."

I took comfort from the welcome images, but as they weren't due to occur for many hours, I wasn't about to give up.

"We keep searching," I declared, "and look for any clues as to where she might have gone from here, or where she could be hiding."

It took the better part of the night, but we eventually picked up her scent—just traces here and there—but enough for us to follow the astonishing she'd taken from the wharf to an abattoir, where we deduced she must have attempted to drink cow's blood, then on to a Walmart, and, finally, to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city. Tracking her was a frustratingly slow process, with false starts aplenty and much backtracking. None of us could believe how well she'd done, her control and ingenuity unheard of in a newborn, but once we found the warehouse she'd chosen to hide in, we had some important decisions to make.

The last thing any of us wanted to do was frighten Bella as, of course, she had no reason to trust a large group of vampires. In the end it was decided that only Jasper, Alice, and I would approach. Jasper, to use his talent to calm her, Alice, to hopefully predict Bella's responses and help us to act accordingly, and me, because no power on earth could have kept me away.

We passed the pile of old clothing she'd discarded near the entrance to the warehouse and followed her incredible scent deep into the building. Other than a desperate desire to reach Forks, Alice had been unable to determine Bella's intentions past this day. I wasn't surprised. Considering what the poor girl had been through, it was a wonder she could plan at all.

After following her scent to the entrance to the basement of the building, we paused, utilizing our various talents to determine the best way forward.

And drew a collective...blank.

Despite listening for all my worth, I couldn't hear Bella's thoughts.

"Jazz?" I frowned, but his thoughts told me he could discern no emotions other than our own.

Alice shrugged, her _I told you so _expression grating on my already frazzled nerves.

Bella's scent, when we'd finally picked it up, had brought us to this building, this room, but now there was nothing.

Bursting through the doorway, that is exactly what we found…nothing. Bella was nowhere to be seen.

_~HIS~_

BPOV

I heard them coming from a long way off and, more importantly, I smelled their scents, their amazingly alluring vampire scents. There seemed to be an awful lot of them, and all I could think to do was pray as I took off down the empty corridors of the warehouse. Locating a grate, I climbed down into the drainage sewers that hopefully led out into the forest and not back into the city. The smell inside the sewers was atrocious, but I was pretty sure it would mask my scent as well as give me a way of escape.

_Please God, don't let them hear me…don't let them see me…don't let them find me_…I mentally chanted over and over, wishing I could somehow become invisible.

I ran, ducking and weaving with no idea if I was heading in the right direction. Then I took a wrong turn—or maybe it was the right one?—down a dead end. The tunnel led upward, toward the surface and a circle of blazing light. Trapped, I spun to face the way I'd come, but to my relief, I couldn't hear them following me.

_But how to escape?_

The vampires that had tracked me to my hiding place must have somehow braved the daylight to do so.

Spinning to face the entrance to the tunnel, I approached the circle of light cautiously, ready to spring back to safety at the first sign of any tingling or burning sensation...but I felt nothing. Weighing my options, I decided the only way to know whether Laurent had been telling the truth or not was to take a risk. Inching forward, I reached the barest tip of one finger toward the beam of sunlight. Then, holding the breath that I didn't actually need, I swept my finger quickly past the light and back to the safety of the shadows.

A kaleidoscope of color and light bombarded my senses, and I screamed, throwing myself backward in terror.

Two things struck me at that point. I wasn't hurt by the light, not even a little, and my heart wasn't racing like it should have been. Feeling for a pulse that I couldn't find no matter how hard I tried, brought home to me, once again, how completely my life had been changed by Laurent's attack. That's if I could be counted as still living.

I didn't even have a heartbeat.

Shrugging off the depressing thought, I approached the sunlight once more, stunned immobile when I eventually plucked up the courage to put my entire hand in the circle and saw the way the light reflected off my skin like the prisms of a diamond. Whatever I'd expected it wasn't this, and I burst out laughing, both relieved and slightly hysterical.

Quickly sobering, I thought through the consequences of my discovery. It was nice to know I wouldn't be burned to a crisp if I went out into the light, but keeping from being discovered could be a problem. A walking, talking Swarovski crystal would probably draw attention.

Leaping easily to the tunnel entrance high above my head, I shoved the huge, metal grate aside and carefully peered over the edge of the rim. Relieved to discover that the tunnel opened out into dense and deserted forest, I climbed out, my backpack miraculously intact and still slung over my shoulder. With a little experimentation, I worked out that I if I stayed in the shadows I didn't sparkle quite so badly, and for the first time ever, I found myself thinking that Forks' ever-present cloud cover and general gloominess might not be such a bad thing.

_~HIS~_

EPOV

"Where the hell is she?" Emmett asked the question filling all our thoughts.

"She can't have just disappeared..._again_!" Rose paced across the room to the place where Bella had been hiding, personally offended by the fact that her new 'sister' wasn't waiting to meet us with open arms.

"It's obvious that Bella has a talent," I declared, convinced by the events of the night and the incredible difficulty we'd had in tracking her this far. I knew no other way that she could have evaded us, and it explained why she'd disappeared from Alice's visions...though not the _how. _"She's shielding herself from us…and I think from the worst of her newborn excesses."

"A talent for control?" Carlisle puzzled.

"And for protection," Jasper agreed. "She must have heard us coming, and her gift activated to hide her escape."

"So what do we do now? I can't bear the thought of that poor girl out there all alone and terrified." Esme's words echoed my thoughts.

"We keep searching until we pick up her scent again," Emmett stated, refusing to accept that we'd failed.

"No…we go back to Forks and meet her there, like Alice's visions have shown all along," I contradicted disconsolately. "If she thinks we're following her, she'll use her talent to evade us. She's going to try and get to her father's house, and Alice has seen that if we get there ahead of time, we'll be able to intercept her."

There didn't seem to be any other way. The only positive note I could see was that once the decision was made, Alice's visions regarding the time and place for our meeting with this girl, who I hoped would eventually be interested in sharing her unexpected future with me, became a little more certain.

_~HIS~_

**_I try to avoid choppy POV changes, but these little mini chapters were written a while ago. I didn't think you guys would appreciate me posting 'drabbles,' so I added a few 'chapters' together.  
_**

**_Still no meeting between Edward and Bella...but we're getting closer! :D  
_**

_**xxx TLSue**  
_


	14. Temptation

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I just watched the BD2 trailer on the BD2 movie site, and it was awesome. The Twiverse still rocks! :D**_

_**I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this little story. Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing...and being terrific friends. **_

_**Words: 1358**_

Chapter 14

Temptation

BPOV

Geography wasn't my strongest subject, but after a few minutes with my map and compass, I worked out the direction I had to take and began running back toward Puget Sound. I needed to cross over to get to the Olympic Peninsula...and I needed to get in the water as soon as possible to wash away my scent so my new vampire trackers couldn't find me. Or that was my hope.

I ran in a crazy, haphazard fashion, swimming through as many creeks and tributaries as I could find, climbing tall trees and leaping from branch to branch before doubling back and swimming some more to try and make my scent too confusing to follow. When I finally entered the Sound with my backpack held just above the water—I was going to need to drink the blood, and soon, if my next stop didn't pan out—I considered the questions that had been flooding my mind.

_Just how many vampires were there? And why did they all find _me_ so fascinating? _

It was like I was a freaking vampire magnet!

_And what if I led them back to Forks...to Charlie? _

I'd thought I was being so clever hiding Jame's and Victoria's limbs on those container ships, but I realized that I was responsible for the lives of the sailors on board the ships that those two psychos would most likely kill when hunting for their limbs...and just because they wanted to. I should have burned their limbs when I had the chance, though somehow I didn't think that would have stopped them from coming after me _or _killing other people.

_How often did mature vampires have to feed?_

I could feel my own thirst rising, and it wasn't that many hours since I'd drunk the cow's blood. Laurent had mentioned that newborns—ugh! I hated that term—needed to feed more often than older vampires, making it sound like I should be grateful that I had them to bring me my prey.

My life was an undisputed nightmare, and I had no idea how to make it better. I probably shouldn't be going anywhere near Forks, but I wanted to see my dad so badly, I could think of little else. My only hope was that he'd be able to help me somehow. I just had to make sure I didn't hurt him, accidentally or otherwise...or anyone else for that matter.

Once I was on dry land on the Olympic Peninsula side of the water, I checked my map again. There were towns along the way to avoid, and I took that into consideration, but there was one stop I'd already decided to risk taking…a small hospital not far from the highway.

It didn't take long for me to reach it and, aided by some convenient cloud cover and an empty parking lot, I made my way up to a side entrance to the building.

_Was I really going to do this? Was it fair of me to risk the lives of the patients inside just so that I could try to find some stored human blood and test my theory?_

I knew the answer was no, or should have been, but scared and desperate, I silenced my conscience and crept inside the building.

_I will not hurt anyone_, I chanted repeatedly as I slunk down the empty corridors, doing my best to ignore the overwhelming aroma of sickness and decay. There was a reason I'd chosen this particular hospital, even if I didn't want to admit it to myself. It was a hospice for the terminally ill. All the patients here were dying, not that I intended hurting any of them, but if the worse came to worst...

Managing to stay out of sight, it didn't take me long to find the medical supply rooms. To my profound relief, I soon located bags of blood, O Neg, stored in a fridge, and I took one…just one. I didn't want to risk any of the patients suffering due to my actions, and I would force myself to drink the cow's blood for as long as I had to. But my hope was that Charlie would somehow be able to purchase human blood for me legally once I explained to him what had happened.

For now, I just really needed to know if this would work.

Hiding in a small cleaning cupboard near an outside wall, one with a window up high in case I needed to escape, I held the bag close to my chest, savoring the aroma that I could clearly detect through the thick plastic. It smelled wonderful, much better than the cow's blood, though a little different than I remembered from the man at the warehouse. With a mixture of hope and trepidation, I carefully punctured a hole in the bag and sipped cautiously at the precious fluid…and promptly spat it out all over the back wall of the cupboard.

_Damn!_

Whatever preservative agent they used to stop the blood from spoiling made it completely unpalatable. Stretched way beyond my limits, I curled into a ball to weep the strange, dry sobs that passed for vampire tears.

Ignoring my worsening thirst, I let the morning pass, watching the intermittent sunlight forming pretty sparkly patterns on the walls as it bounced off my strange, new skin. While physically I wasn't the least bit tired, emotionally I'd reached overload and needed some time to try and process the events of the last five days. I wasn't sure how much processing I accomplished—how did one adjust to being kidnapped, tortured, and turned into a bloodthirsty monster?—but I felt a little better for the effort.

With the afternoon came consistent and,thankfully, heavy cloud cover, and I made my way silently and unseen from the building…well, almost. The last room before the exit was occupied by an elderly man whose heartbeat—which I could hear as easily as if I held a stethoscope pressed against his chest—and ragged breathing told me he didn't have long to live. Tempted almost beyond measure, I found myself creeping stealthily into his room.

The man was suffering, it was obvious, and I had the means to end his torment…and my own. The insidious thought took root in my mind, causing the torturous burn in my throat to flare as if I'd thrown gas on a bonfire. I took a step toward him, and then another, my nostrils flaring as I inhaled the scent that caused my mouth to water and my fingers to curl into claws.

I would be merciful. I'd make it painless somehow, maybe by breaking the man's neck with a quick flick of my wrist. And then I would drink, my mind and body in absolute accord with my plan as I allowed the craving for blood to overwhelm me.

Taking another step, I came closer to his bed. But then I glanced up, startled by a movement to my side, and I saw my reflection—my _new_ reflection—in a mirror hung above a basin. With a gasp, I froze in place, mesmerized by the sight of the blood-red eyes that stared out of my face, a face that had been transformed to a thing of undeniable beauty. I'd never particularly minded the way I looked, though I was realistic in my self-assessment and was honest enough to know that I was ordinary-looking.

Not anymore.

The other thing I was no longer, was human. The feral expression on my face, the demonic color of my eyes, even my body language, all gave proof to that fact. Turning, I fled the room, running for the exit and past a startled caregiver who I was sure saw nothing but a brief blur of color and felt the wind of my passing.

I ran and kept on running, staying hidden amongst the trees that edged the highway. I only paused when the signs I passed, almost too quickly to read, told me I was nearing the town where I'd been born; the town I hadn't visited in a very long time and had never expected to approach like this: on foot, despairing, and inhuman.

_~HIS~_

**Poor Bella, but here's hoping she's in for a nice surprise for a change.**

**Reviews may well activate Bella's talent. Repeat after me...**_**please let Edward and Bella meet...please let Edward and Bella meet...please let Edward and Bella meet...**_

**xxx TLSue**

**Just kidding! :D **


	15. First Impressions

**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I have awesome readers who fortunately don't mind my sense of humor. Thanks for the crazy reviews, guys…and the laughs! **

**Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this maybe a _little _less angsty baby. All errors are mine.**

**Yep…there's no place like home, and nothing like crazily besotted, newly mated Edward _finally _getting to meet Bella. As for her reaction to him…**

**PS…the reviews worked!**

**Words: 2031**

Chapter 15

First Impressions

EPOV

We spent the morning waiting, frustrated beyond belief. Having arrived in plenty of time to intercept Bella on her journey to Forks, I'd begun counting down the minutes to when she would cross our carefully constructed path. But then Alice began to pick up fleeting images that didn't fit the original timeline. They showed Bella taking a detour, her _shield _dropping as we saw her enter what looked to be a small country hospital.

"What is she doing?" I hissed, shaking my head in dismay. Up until now, we were fairly certain that she'd managed to keep her distance from humans, but this move would inevitably bring her into close proximity.

Alice quickly told the others what she'd seen, their expressions mirroring my distress.

"Do you think she's given up trying to resist?" Esme asked, and I threw my hands in the air, bewildered.

"I think it's a hospice," Alice offered in a small voice. "The patients are dying anyway."

Groaning, I spun away, unable to bear the looks of compassion and concern on my family's faces. I would never blame Bella for making such a choice—she must surely be desperate by now, any benefit she'd received from the blood she'd managed to consume at the abattoir exhausted when she'd fled from our perceived threat. But I knew all too well the anguish she would feel if she gave into her newborn craving for human blood.

"No…wait!" Alice cried, her admonishment aimed at our prejudgment of Bella's motives. "She's taking blood from a refrigerator and hiding in a storage cupboard. She's going to try to drink bagged blood."

I followed the events as Alice's vision occurred, my heart swelling with pride at Bella's actions. Of course, her efforts were doomed to failure, but that she would bypass the _living _humans she'd passed along her way in her attempt to find a nonlethal method by which to survive was truly a testament to her strength of character and innately compassionate nature.

To see her fail…to see her sitting curled in a ball, quietly sobbing at the seeming impossibility of her situation and to _not _run back to find and comfort her, was the hardest thing I'd ever done. But as soon as I made the decision to do so, the still successful if delayed meeting with Bella that Alice foresaw dissolved into a chaotic and public disruption at the hospital as Bella fled from my approach in sheer panic.

"You mustn't go to her," Alice insisted, ignoring my feral growl. "You'll only frighten her, and it will be much harder for us to convince her to trust us."

Suppressing the almost violent urge to go be with my mate, I fixated on what Alice still saw…Bella coming to us…and I made myself wait.

"You're doing the right thing," Carlisle assured me, even as the rest of the family surrounded me, patting my shoulder to express their support.

Sighing, I acknowledged their comfort and wisdom with a nod, then spent the rest of the morning concentrating on Alice's visions, while we waited for Bella to act. When I saw Bella tempted by but resisting the lure of the dying man's blood, it brought me to my knees.

_What had I ever done to deserve such an astonishing girl as my mate?_

Confident that she was finally on her way to Forks, I snapped out of my reverie and refocused on our earlier plan.

We knew we needed to show Bella that we weren't like the vampires that had captured her and had decided earlier…_before _the change in schedule…that the best way to do so was for her to 'find' us engaged in an animal hunt. It seemed the most obvious and quickest way to prove that we were not a threat to humans.

I'd been reluctant to feed at first, too distracted and worried to be bothered by such pedestrian needs. But Carlisle had warned me that my coal-black eyes might be almost as frightening to Bella as red ones. If our eyes were uniformly amber, we could hold that difference up as proof of our following a very different lifestyle to the average vampire. To hopefully make us seem less threatening, Esme and Rose were the ones we planned for Bella to see hunting the small herd of deer we'd positioned across the path that she would take on her way to Forks.

Which, when she finally arrived, is exactly what she saw from a distance, while hiding in the branches of a tall tree and overlooking our merry little family group.

Alice had predicted to the second when Bella would find us, but it was Jasper who sensed her first, picking up the curiosity mixed with fear that radiated from her...along with a dreadful, unwavering despair. He almost groaned aloud with the pain of her tumultuous emotions, but I gestured him to silence and very slowly approached the area of forest where she was hiding.

To my frustration, I couldn't hear her thoughts, though I hoped that was a temporary issue. I'd never been unable to hear a person's thoughts before, human or vampire, and the idea of being locked out of the mind of the most important person in my world would be a cruel joke.

"Bella," I spoke softly when I stood beneath the tree she was hiding in, knowing she would easily hear my words. "You can trust us. We won't hurt you…we want to be your friends."

My words didn't have quite the effect I desired, and she took off through the tree tops, leaping from branch to branch, virtually flying through the air. My pursuit was immediate and exhilarating, and this time she had no hope of getting away. While I recognized a definite dulling of my senses when it came to the noise of her flight—courtesy of her talent, I assumed—I had her in my line of sight and wasn't about to let her escape this time.

"It's all right," I called, even as I sped along the ground beneath her. "We're not like the vampires that kidnapped you. We don't hurt people, or drink human blood."

Her mad flight through the trees slowed at my words until she came to a stop, perched at the top of a very tall pine. I quickly scaled the adjoining tree until we were at eye level, and she could see me…and I her.

Alice's visions hadn't come close to doing Bella justice, and my mouth fell open. Awestruck by her astonishing beauty, I stared, mesmerized.

"Oh, great," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Another love-struck-fool looking for his _mate_. You vampires need your own online dating site."

Snapping my mouth shut, I gave my head a shake to clear my befuddlement. That wasn't quite the first impression I'd wanted to give, or the response I'd hoped to receive.

_Surely if Bella was my mate, then I was also hers?_

Rebuking myself for the thought, I knew I shouldn't expect anything other than fear and animosity from Bella considering the horrors she'd experienced at the hands of others of our kind. I'd just never considered the possibility that her first words to me would be a sarcastic put-down of Rosalie proportions.

"So, what do you eat then…or drink…or whatever?" she asked, her body language telling me she was a hair's breadth away from fleeing.

"Animals. We drink the blood of animals," I quickly offered, forestalling her flight.

She shuddered, a look of revulsion crossing her truly exquisite features. "Tried that. I drank cow's blood, and it tastes disgusting," she grumbled, and I suppressed a snort.

"The blood of domesticated animals _is _disgusting…truly awful," I commiserated, trying to show sympathy when all I wanted to do was grin from ear to ear at the fact that she was here, safe, and talking to me.

"How do you stomach it then, and resist, you know..._human_ blood?"

Taking a risk, I moved out along a tree branch to bring myself closer, keeping my body language as neutral as possible and with my hands out in front of me to show I meant no harm.

Bella stiffened, but stayed where she was, crouched with one arm wrapped around the trunk of her tree.

"Wild animals taste good, well, much better than the domestic kind. The wilder, more predatory the animal, the better the taste," I explained.

Her hand went to her throat, and I cringed, remembering the overwhelming craving and pain of a newborn's thirst.

"There's a herd of deer nearby, if you'd like to try some," I offered, and her head swung sharply in the right direction, her incredible senses homing in on the scent and heartbeats of the intended prey. At least, that's what I assumed. I still couldn't read her mind, even now that she had relaxed a little.

"I'm Edward, by the way, Edward Cullen. The others you saw are all members of my family," I added, and her startlingly blood-red eyes returned to my face. "We came to find you, to try and help you in Seattle when you escaped from James' coven, but you sensed us and ran. We're sorry we frightened you. That wasn't our intention."

"You guys are a _family_…of vampires?" she asked, frowning and cocking her head to the side in the most adorable way. Resisting the desire to scoop her up in my arms and never let her go, I nodded, struggling to force words past the tightening in my throat. I hoped I didn't look like a "love-struck-fool" again, but I was feeling seriously overwhelmed with gratitude for her safety, a longing to be closer to her that proved to me without a shadow of a doubt that I had, at long last, found my mate, and the sort of physical desire I'd witnessed too many times to count but had never before experienced first hand.

_Would you like some help there, Edward?_ Jasper offered dryly from a distance, and I nodded, softly blowing air from my lungs as his talent helped dampen my…_eagerness_.

"The others would like to meet you," I explained, keeping my tone gentle and non-threatening. "I promise none of us will do you any harm. We only want to help you."

Bella looked from me to the six vampires slowly approaching on the ground, and her fear visibly escalated. She turned to flee, and Esme called out, "We know your father, Chief Swan. He's very worried about you."

I questioned the wisdom of her mentioning our connection to Bella's father when she'd soon have to come to terms with her parents believing her dead. But Esme's words worked, and Bella turned back to face us.

"You know Charlie?" she asked, her tone and expression both hope-filled and heartbreaking.

"Yes, he's a friend of mine, of all of ours," Carlisle called up to Bella. "My name is Carlisle Cullen and this is my family. May I have the pleasure of introducing you?" he asked and after a short pause, Bella nodded.

Once the introductions were accomplished, Bella made her way slowly, warily, down from the tree. We reached the ground together, but I kept my distance despite the almost overwhelming desire I had to wrap her in my arms and kiss her senseless, Jasper's talent no match for the urge I had to claim my mate. Somehow I didn't think she'd appreciate that approach just yet. She did keep glancing my way, however, a fact I noted with gratification. It seemed she wasn't entirely unaffected by my presence; at least, she wasn't looking at me the way she had Laurent, like she wished I was dead.

"So, have you told her about the vampire soul-mate thing yet?" Emmett whispered in my ear, and I shushed him to silence. But, of course, Bella heard my tactless brother's comment.

"I knew it," she muttered, shaking her head. "Well, at least this one's cute."

For the first time in more years than I could recall, I felt embarrassed and wished the ground would open up and swallow me. But then I considered what she'd said, and I smiled.

Bella thought I was cute.

_~HIS~_

**_That he is, Bella, that he is. Swoon…_**

**_I just love growly, protective, smitten Edward. Anyone think he might have his work cut out for him?_**

**_xxx TLSue_**


	16. Different

_**Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm focusing on the wonderful Edward/Bella stories that I love rather than real life dramas.**_

_**Thank you all so much for your amazing support for this story! Special thanks to Lillian-is-fickle for giving Hunted in Seattle its 1000th review. Sorry I couldn't respond to your reviews, but you've got your P.M.s disabled. And a HUGE thank you to all those wonderful readers taking the time review every chapter. Mwah!  
**_

_**Hmmm...these chapters keep getting longer and longer. Thanks to Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar for betaing (and 're-betaing') this angsty little baby.**_

_**Words: 2096**_

Chapter 16

Different

BPOV

The Cullens were an incredibly attractive group of people. Other than Edward—without a doubt, the best-looking boy I'd ever seen in my life—they were all paired up into couples, and my first reaction was to shudder at the realization. James' treatment of Victoria and Laurent's blatant disregard for my life, safety, wellbeing, and _wishes_ hadn't exactly given me a very positive opinion of the vampire equivalent of soul mates.

These vampires professed to be different than the psychopathic trio I'd escaped from, and I felt my hopes rising a little. While I wasn't interested in finding a _mate, _the chance that there might be something other than abject misery in my future was an incredible relief and gave me the incentive to at least hear them out.

They _seemed _to really care for each other if the way they stayed close to their partners, holding hands and sharing smiles, was anything to go by. Of course, they were mostly focused on reassuring me that they were harmless, explaining that their eyes being amber, not red, was proof that they did not hunt humans. Edward had assured me that they chose to kill and drink the blood of animals not people and that it wasn't completely disgusting...if the animal was wild and not domesticated. I so hoped he was telling the truth, as the thought of drinking more of the cow's blood made me want to throw-up...and cry.

They also said that they lived in a house near Forks, worked in town, and went to the local high school of all things despite all being much, _much_ older than they looked. Not that I was ready to believe everything they said just because they were ridiculously good-looking. They could be lying, the stories they told me all part of an elaborate con, though what they hoped to gain from it, I couldn't imagine. Surely single female vampires weren't _that _hard to come by?

If what they'd said about being friends with my dad was true then I could probably trust them, as he was a pretty good judge of character.

The thought reminded me of why I'd been so desperate to get to Forks in the first place.

_Charlie!_

Shaking my head, I had to admit that Laurent was right about one thing; I _was _easily distracted.

"Look, it's been nice meeting you," I assured the Cullens, not wanting to seem rude in case they were genuine in their desire to help me and this wasn't all some bizarre, match-making exercise to 'pair up' their one, lone member. "And I would appreciate getting the chance to ask some questions about how you manage to live amongst…_humans._ But right now, I just need to get to my dad. He must be worried sick."

The looks they exchanged rekindled the fear that they might not be all they seemed, and I began to slowly back away, planning to run like crazy the first chance I got. It wasn't much of a plan since I was outnumbered seven to one, but it was all I had. That and my crazy new strength, though Emmett, in particular, looked like he would be tough to beat considering he was about the size of a bear.

"Bella?" Edward stepped closer, and I flinched, crouching defensively. A strange growl reverberated in my chest, and my fingers curled into claws.

"No! Hey...it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," he insisted, backing away, his hands held out before him.

"But you're going to try and stop me from seeing my dad, aren't you?" I accused him, my eyes darting from his insanely beautiful face to the other members of his _family._

"Jazz, a little help here," Edward murmured quietly, and I spun to face the tall, blond-haired one with the Southern accent. He didn't make a move toward me, just stared intently, which should have felt threatening. But oddly, I felt myself quickly calm, my panic subsiding.

Carlisle, the one who'd said he was a doctor, a _surgeon _of all things—how on earth that worked, I had no idea—raised his hand as if requesting permission to speak, and I nodded jerkily for him to go ahead, still on high alert but feeling a little foggy.

"We understand how much you want to see your father, but there are a few things we need to make you aware of so that neither you nor he is put at risk."

I'd had enough explanations from Laurent to last a lifetime, but I didn't want to risk endangering Charlie, and I was nervous about how I'd cope being close to him with my throat burning painfully and my thirst reaching unbearable levels.

I gestured for Carlisle to continue, swallowing the venom that had pooled in my throat at the mere thought of drinking again, even something vile like the cow's blood. I didn't want to admit to myself that the venom had pooled when I'd briefly thought of _Charlie's _human blood and how loudly his pulse would beat since he was strong and healthy, not injured like the victims Laurent and James had thrown at my feet.

"We keep our true natures a secret from humans, explaining our differences in a variety of logical ways, and we never stay in a place long enough for the locals to realize we're not aging," Carlisle began, and while fascinated, I couldn't help wondering how long-winded his explanation was going to be.

"Speed it up, Carlisle," Jasper muttered, and I stared at him surprised. I hadn't meant for my impatience to show.

"Bella, the changes in your appearance will be obvious to anyone who knows you or has seen your photo, and not just because your eyes are no longer brown, but red," Carlisle continued, speaking more quickly. "The state authorities are investigating your disappearance, and if you suddenly appear, they will insist on you being medically examined. That _mustn't_ happen."

"Maybe they could help me change back into a human," I countered defiantly. "Maybe they know more about vampires than you think…if not the state police, the FBI or…or…X Files, or someone like that."

Again, they exchanged pointed looks at my words, though Edward closed his eyes and groaned, like he was in pain.

"It doesn't work that way, Bella," he murmured, inching a little closer. I let him this time, as he really did seem harmless, his expression so sad and sweet. "Once the change has happened, it is irreversible…believe me, we _know. _And the authorities would only want to experiment on you, to find out about your abilities and weaknesses and maybe try and use your venom to create _more _vampires to use as soldiers…as _weapons_."

I flinched at his words, but I couldn't deny that they made an awful kind of sense.

"I'll just wait until my dad's alone and talk to him then," I offered by way of a compromise. "I'll explain what you said; that he can't tell anyone."

"It would be very unlikely that you'd find him alone," Carlisle countered. "He's surrounded by his friends and fellow officers, and now the state police and detectives are on the scene…"

"You won't find him, because he's gone to Seattle to help with the investigation," Alice, the tiny girl with the dark, pixie-like hair interjected, and I gasped.

"What?" I cried. "But I just _came _from there."

Despite the fact that we were deep in a forest, I unerringly looked in the direction of the city that I had just run, and _swam _from. I took a step in that direction but then hesitated. All I'd wanted from almost the first moment I'd opened my eyes after the burning had stopped—other than something to drink—was to get to Charlie, but I obviously hadn't thought it all through.

"Will you…will you _help _me to contact him?" I asked, running my fingers raggedly through my hair and addressing my question to the group, my eyes darting between Carlisle and Edward. "If I'm honest, I'm a bit worried about being alone with him. I don't want to hurt anyone, _especially_ not my dad or mom, but…" My hand rose to my throat, and Carlisle nodded sympathetically.

"Of course; we understand entirely," he said in a soothing tone, and I could imagine him as a doctor reassuring his patients. "We'll certainly do whatever we can to help you, _including _looking at the possibility of contacting your father."

His words triggered shocked looks from the others and an angry outburst from Rosalie, the Barbie lookalike.

"You can't be serious," she hissed. "You'd put all our lives in danger!"

"Whoa…sweetheart," Emmett placated her, drawing her against his side. "We're just exploring options."

Alice suddenly froze in place, an odd, vacant expression coming over her face and her eyelids fluttering. It looked like she was having a seizure, but no one seemed too worried, Jasper merely placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Is that a real possibility…that Bella might be able to maintain contact with her human family?" Esme, Carlisle's partner, stepped forward and addressed her question to Edward who hadn't taken his eyes off me. "What does Alice see happening if Bella talks to her father or mother?"

I had no idea why she was asking Edward what Alice was _seeing_ or what was going on, but when I turned to flee, an enervating wave of what could only be artificial calm stole over me. It was like I'd been hit by a tranquilizer dart.

"Would somebody tell me what's going on?" I demanded, my words slurring as I staggered a little under the onslaught. Edward reached to steady me with his hand, but I hissed at him to stay back.

"Jasper's just trying to help you not to act impulsively," he explained. "He has a talent, an ability to affect a person's emotions. He's helping you to calm down."

"Well get him to ease up a bit," I muttered, shaking my head, and the fog slowly cleared.

"Alice possesses a clairvoyant ability, and she's assessing the possible outcomes if your father were to find out that you're a vampire," Edward continued without me having to prompt, and I shot him a grateful glance.

"Why was Esme asking you about what Alice was seeing?" I asked, and Edward shrugged, his expression rueful.

"Because I'm a mind reader, and I was watching Alice's visions as they occurred in her thoughts."

"Oh," I murmured, shrinking back a little. An empath, a clairvoyant, and a mind reader. Great.

"Anyone else got any freaky talents?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

"Yes…you," Jasper responded, and I stared at him, shocked.

"Me?"

"Both for shielding and evasion, or something along those lines," he clarified…though his words made little sense. "Your self-control is unprecedented for a newborn and points to you being talented. The way you made it out of the city, avoiding humans and then escaping our detection, would otherwise have been impossible."

"Bella?" Edward drew my attention. "I know you must have many questions, and we promise to answer them truthfully, but Jasper can tell that your thirst is getting worse. Why don't we go find that herd of deer I mentioned? You'll feel much better once you've hunted, and then afterwards, we can go back to our house and you can decide what you want to do next."

His words and tone were so reasonable that I found myself nodding in agreement, but when he put his hand out for me to take, I hesitated.

"Probably not a good idea just yet," Alice murmured at Edward's crestfallen look, blurring to my side and lacing her arm with mine before I had a chance to react or object. "Bella needs some adjustment time before you two take it to the next level." She gave Edward a pointed look, and his eyes widened, before he staggered back a step.

Her words and his reaction didn't make much sense, but that was hardly surprising. Nothing had been remotely normal since I'd made the mistake of going to Victoria's aide in that alleyway.

The Cullens didn't appear to be anything like my brutal captors, but they were certainly different with their strange, psychic abilities.

Shaking my head, I stared at Edward and sighed. He was a _mind reader_, of all things.

I couldn't deny I found him attractive...just knowing he _knew _that was embarrassing. But if I wanted a boyfriend—which I_ didn't—_the last thing I could have imagined was dating someone who could read my thoughts...other than dating a vampire, of course.

_~HIS~_

_**Well...she feels **_**something****_, but she's not exactly throwing herself into his arms, not that I blame her after everything she's been through. Romance wouldn't exactly be my priority either!_**

_**xxx TLSue**_


	17. Fascinating

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse and messing with canon.**_

_**Last chapter didn't sit comfortably with everyone, as some reviewers felt that Bella's reaction to Edward wasn't very 'canon' and that she should have fallen for him instantly. I was thinking of two things when I wrote it this way: the first was Edward's reaction to Bella in Twilight. While instantly drawn to her and definitely intrigued, he initially described her as 'plain and ordinary-looking' (grrr!), ran away from her, got angry with her for messing with his self-control, turned obsessive-stalker on her, took her on their first date still not sure if he was going to kill her...and somehow fell in love and finally admitted it to himself along the way, so it wasn't exactly a typical 'love at first sight' scenario, either. Secondly, I think that after her brutal abduction and change, not to mention the introduction Laurent gave her to the whole concept of vampire-mating, Bella's entitled to be a little wary!**_

_**This chapter was beta'ed at some point by Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar but I've messed with it so much I hate to attach their names to it, as I'm sure to have stuffed up the grammar right royally!**_

_**Words: 1707**_

Chapter 17

Fascinating

BPOV

I listened carefully to the answers the Cullens gave to my many questions as we made our way to where the deer were grazing, oblivious to the fate that awaited them. I was still a little wary about drinking animal blood, but Edward assured me that it tasted okay, though not as good as human blood, of course.

It was disconcerting to hear how they'd actually witnessed most of the events I'd experienced over the last week courtesy of Alice's psychic ability. But to my surprise and relief, they were very sympathetic about what I'd been through...and understanding about what I'd done. They insisted that my refusal to kill and drink from a human was almost impossible for a new vampire to accomplish, especially when they were essentially on their own. Carlisle had managed something similar, but he'd known before being changed what he'd be faced with, and he'd helped the others to do the same…most of the time. It was a shock to discover that almost every member of their family had killed humans at some time or another, though for varying reasons. They all seemed so _nice _and normal, well, as normal as you could expect considering they were supernatural beings.

The conversation soon turned to the dubious-sounding joys of hunting and drinking animal blood; Emmett, the big one with a decidedly odd sense of humor, shocking me with his assertion that the blood of bears tasted the best. Apparently he had a personal grudge. The others all had their favorites, though I was particularly interested to hear Edward's and not surprised to discover it was mountain lion. He moved with the grace of a jungle cat, and his eyes followed me continuously, even though he was trying not to make it obvious.

I should have been annoyed at having another single male vampire deciding unilaterally that I was his mate, and I _was_ annoyed…sort of. He was awfully cute; in fact, he was the best-looking guy I'd ever seen in my life. But the last thing I needed at this particular moment in time was a boyfriend, let alone a soul mate for all eternity. I had enough on my plate. Still…I couldn't help being a little intrigued, and I found myself watching him out of the corner of my eye.

The sound of the deers' heartbeats reached me at about the same time that I detected their earthy scent. The aroma wasn't as unappetizing as the cow blood, but it wasn't great, and I held back. The Cullens seemed surprised when I didn't immediately take off after the deer when we came within range, looking down on the herd from a high, rocky ridge. But I was unsure what to do and uncomfortable with just giving into my instincts like they suggested.

Didn't they understand how hard I was trying _not _to do that very thing?

"How about I hunt with you?" Edward offered, and I cocked my head, eyeing him quizzically.

"You want us to drink from the same deer?" I asked.

He smirked, his half smile doing strange things to my stomach, like butterflies were dancing the Zumba low in my belly. "No, I don't think that would be a very good idea," he murmured, his musical voice sounding low and husky.

"Well, what then?" I muttered, cross with myself for my reaction to him and with Edward for being so damned...appealing.

"We can run after them together, and you can watch how I hunt," he offered. "Maybe that way you won't get completely covered in blood or end up with your clothes all torn, though that's pretty standard for a newborn. Hunting wild animals takes some practice."

I arched an eyebrow at his words, offended that he didn't think I could feed without making a mess. And if he called me a _baby_ again, I wasn't going to be responsible for my actions.

"Fine." I nodded gruffly, turning my attention toward my prey from our place above them before looking back to see him watching me. "How do we get down there?" I asked, and Edward grinned, the effect of which was to render me stunned and speechless.

_Holy cow! He wasn't just cute; he was absolutely gorgeous and totally, unbelievably hot!_

"We jump." He waggled his eyebrows and then demonstrated, dropping the thirty feet to the ground as if it was nothing. Snapping myself out of my stupor, I quickly followed, undeniably impressed by his graceful movements and remarkable speed, not to mention the way he looked in his tight fitting jeans and vee neck shirt.

Groaning, I shook my head as I ran after him. I wasn't at all sure about the whole vampire-mating thing, but I recognized a crush when I saw it—not that I'd experienced one personally before—but, boy-oh-boy, was I crushing now.

_There's a first time for everything,_ I reminded myself as I ran after Edward, trying not to read too much into it. Then a wholly unexpected giggle erupted from my lips when I thought about all the other 'first times' I was experiencing, like running down and killing my dinner with my bare hands...and teeth.

I found it surprisingly easy to catch and kill the deer, considering the fact that I didn't like to go fishing as I couldn't bear to bait the hook let alone dispatch the fish after I'd caught them. But this was exhilarating: the running, hunting, leaping; the thrill of the catch and undeniable rush of the kill. I could see why the Cullens talked about hunting animals with so much enthusiasm, and it was a relief to find that my new vampire instincts were at least partially satisfied by the process...if not completely absorbed.

Even when my teeth were sunk into the deer's neck and the soothing, thirst-relieving, if not entirely quenching blood was running down my throat, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off Edward. There was something about watching him run down and kill his own animal, the way his eyes stayed glued to mine while he sucked and swallowed its blood, that galvanized my attention.

Of course, _he _didn't have a mark on him when we were finished, other than a bit of dirt on his knees that was barely visible against the black color of his jeans. I ended up a little more worse for wear, but not _too _badly. My clothes were already in need of a wash after my long night and morning; the grass, dirt, and _minor _blood stains added by my wrestling with the deer not overly obvious...or so I chose to believe.

"You can have a shower when we get back to the house," Edward offered. "I'm sure the girls can find you something clean to wear."

"Gee…thanks." I scowled, turning my back on him in a huff.

"What?" he sounded bewildered. "Bella, please, tell me what's wrong," he pleaded.

"Yeah, right," I muttered angrily, stalking back towards where the others were waiting. "As if you don't know, Mr. Mind Reader."

"No, Bella...wait," he called, blurring to my side. "I can't read your mind. Every other person I've ever met or come across...but not _yours_, I promise."

Jerking to a halt, I spun to face him. "Why? What's wrong with me?" I demanded.

"Wrong with you?" He seemed stunned by my words. "Nothing is _wrong_ with you, Bella, not a single thing. You're perfect."

Ducking my head, I smiled at his reverentially whispered words and awed expression. No one had ever looked at me that way before.

The other members of his family were all very complimentary of how I'd managed my first hunt, and I speared Edward with a pointed look. His shoulders slumped, and he seemed awfully discouraged, so I relented and gave him a smile. His answering smile was like the sun in Phoenix; bright, warm and all-encompassing. It was so mesmerizing that it took me a few minutes to drag my eyes away from his far too handsome and undeniably fascinating face. I had a feeling I could stare at it for hours and never get bored.

The rest of the journey to the Cullen's house passed quietly, giving me a chance to think over everything that had happened since I'd come across them hunting deer in the forest…though I was fairly certain they'd set that meeting up. I felt uncomfortable knowing that Alice and Edward had seen me drink from that poor man back in Seattle through their combined talents, and that the rest of their family knew about my actions. But they'd all been incredibly supportive and understanding, trying to alleviate my guilt by pointing out that James was the one who'd murdered the man by tearing out his throat, and that he would have died whether I'd drank his blood or not.

I wasn't ready to forgive myself quite so easily.

Mostly, though, I just felt overwhelming relief that I was no longer alone; desperate to tell my parents that I was okay and to find a way to visit them safely; and, if I was being honest with myself, amazed and flattered that a guy as gorgeous as Edward Cullen was so clearly interested in a girl like me. Recalling the brief glimpse I'd caught of my reflection that morning, I was reminded that I wasn't exactly plain and ordinary-looking anymore. But still...

_Maybe life as a vampire wouldn't be so bad, after all,_ I mused, before shaking my head in disbelief at the thought. I'd been through hell, and my life continued to be a nightmare from which I couldn't awaken. Surely I wasn't so shallow as to think that the attention of a good-looking guy made up for everything that had happened, not to mention the frighteningly uncertain future that stretched before me?

With my mood ricocheting all over the place, I tried to focus on how good it was going to be to see Charlie and Renee and to let them know that I was alive. But then I thought of what I was going to have to tell them…about what had been done to me and what I'd done…and a sob caught in my throat.

~HIS~

_**She's getting there...slowly.  
**_

_**Hmmm...staring at Edward's** ***cough...Rob's* face for hours, utterly mesmerized. Anyone else been doing that on a daily basis for the last few years?**_

_**This chapter is dedicated to my favorite blog, Robstenation, that has just shut down after more than three years due to current circumstances. I'm feeling a little lost without their daily input. Reviews certainly help, though. ;)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	18. Family

**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight_. _It's my wedding anniversary, but my darling hubby is too sick to celebrate. Sigh…**

**I'm so sorry to have to do this, but real life pressures (the flu, a nasty gastro bug that I just can't shake, and sky-rocketing work pressures) have forced me to reassess my updating schedule. I've loved posting a chapter a day, but it's been much tougher than I expected, and I'm going to have to slow down a little. My tendency to rewrite and greatly expand the prewritten chapters hasn't helped, but I'd rather post longer chapters where possible than drabbles. So, to avoid burnout or long breaks between chapters when I'm caught up with what I've written, I'll be updating HiS on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from now on. I'm also concerned about rushing the chapters which I'm currently writing, as so many fanfics start with a bang and finish on a whimper. I'm sorry to disappoint, so please…be kind?**

**Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this chapter…and Content 1 for going over it as well beforehand. I'd say it was in perfect grammatical shape, but Gor Girl inspired me with a terrific line about "good looks and a herd of deer", and I just had to add in an extra little scene. **

**Words: 2252**

Chapter 18

Family

BPOV

The Cullens' home, tucked away in the forest just outside of Forks, was a revelation. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting but it certainly wasn't the multi-story, timber and glass, architect-designed home that seemed to blend into the forest while absorbing every available ray of light.

I stifled a snort, imagining what it would look like when the sun came out from behind the almost ever-present Forks' cloud cover and all _seven _of the Cullens were reflecting the light inside. There'd be rainbow prisms bouncing around the house like the inside of a crystal shop.

"Not what you were expecting?" Edward asked as he, Esme, and Carlisle showed me through the main living areas, a cute half-smile curving his lips.

"No moat," I acknowledged with a shrug. "But you could still have a dungeon, for all I know."

"Cool idea! Rose and I call dibs on the rack and chains!" Emmett called from an upstairs room, reminding me of the super-senses and incredible hearing aspect of vampire life. _That _could get interesting, I imagined, especially if his reason for wanting dibs on a dungeon was the one I couldn't help picturing. Shaking my head to dislodge the vague but disturbing images, I looked over to Edward to find him watching me warily.

"I'd already counted out coffins, since you...I mean _we..._don't need to sleep," I joked, wanting to reassure him that I wasn't offended by his brother's comment.

The worry faded from his face, and I gave him a small smile. He was right, and I did feel a lot better for feeding, or hunting, or whatever they called it.

Alice bounced into the room, having disappeared as soon as we entered the house. "I've got the guest room and bathroom all ready for you if you'd like to take a shower and change your clothes," she said, her expression leading me to believe she didn't think much of my current selection. I bristled and then wondered why I was so quick to take offense, which wasn't typical for me. It appeared that not everything Laurent told me had been a lie as I was certainly moody.

"A shower would be good," I agreed, and I wasn't disappointed. After almost five days without a bath or shower, the hot water felt amazing on my skin. It was a relief to properly clean and condition my hair, even if my swim in the sound had washed away the dried blood from earlier.

I'd already gotten a glimpse of my reflection in the dying man's room at the hospice, but it was another thing to see myself naked in the full-length bathroom mirror. Carlisle wasn't wrong about the differences in my appearance being noticeable, and I couldn't help but stare, a little awed at how _perfect _I looked.

"I guess this is what it feels like to be photo-shopped for real," I murmured, admiring the undeniable improvements: high, firm and definitely larger breasts; smooth, sweeping curves of waist, hip and thigh; flawless skin and subtly enhanced features. The only thing about my new look that wasn't better than before was the startling red color of my eyes, and I couldn't help feeling a little sad. They'd never be brown again, but at least they'd eventually change to the golden amber color of the Cullens' eyes..._Edward's _eyes. They certainly looked good on him, I mused and then ducked my head, embarrassed at the direction of my thoughts.

It was strange not to blush as, if I'd still been human, thinking about how gorgeous Edward was while staring at myself naked in a mirror would have been guaranteed to turn my body red from head to toe.

Attempting to refocus on more important matters than my ill-timed crush, I quickly dressed in the clothes that Alice had provided, relieved that they were nothing too fashion forward. The skinny jeans, lacy camisole, blue-checked shirt, and matching blue converse sneakers were actually pretty cool, and I'd certainly never worn such a lovely matching blue satin bra and panty set before.

After quickly drying my hair and brushing the long and decidedly thicker locks which bounced around me like I was in an advert for Pantene, I turned off the exhaust fan in the bathroom. But before I left to make my way back to where the Cullens had congregated in the living room, I couldn't help overhearing the whispered discussion going on downstairs with my new, supernatural hearing.

"Try not to stare at her like some crazed stalker," Jasper murmured. "You'll frighten her."

"Yeah...get your game on, Edward. It's going to take more than a pretty-boy smile and a herd of deer to win her over," Rose added, and I had to cover my mouth to stifle the chuckle that tried to break free.

"Buy her stuff," Emmett interjected "Girls like that. I know it works for me when I've pissed Rose off and want to get back into her good books."

A thud was followed by an "Ouch! What was that for?"

"I don't think gifts are going to work that well on Bella," Alice spoke up again, her tone decidedly puzzled, though I had to admit she'd got that prediction right.

"Just be yourself, Edward," Esme's quietly murmured voice sounded warm and sincere, and I could imagine her smiling kindly at Edward and maybe patting his shoulder. "There's no rush. Give her time to get to know you."

"_Definitely,"_ Alice agreed with feeling. "Remember what I showed you."

"Yeah, play it cool, bro," Emmett piped up, clearly unfazed by his earlier chastisement. "No matter how much you're dying to grab her and run off with her into the forest to…"

"Emmett," Edward cut him off with a growl, and I deliberately closed the bathroom door with slightly more force than needed, alerting them that I was on my way. My mood wavered between bemused annoyance at the realization that match-making was definitely on the Cullens' agenda and an unfamiliar sense of pride in my appearance and ability to affect a member of the opposite sex. I wasn't used to standing out or being noticed, but I definitely had Edward's attention.

He was waiting for me in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs, and I hid a smirk at his expression. If he was trying to play it cool, he was failing miserably, staring up at me with an awestruck look on his far too handsome face. He'd also showered and changed, _not _that he really needed to, and I couldn't help noticing how hot he looked in a pair of black jeans and a black, button-down shirt rolled up to show off his lean, muscular forearms. His bronze-colored hair stood up in messy and _sexy _disarray and, though I hated to admit it, if he'd put out his hand to me like he had in the forest, I would have taken it. But he left his hands tucked firmly in his pockets, and I huffed with disappointment.

"You okay?" he asked, sounding worried, his brow creasing adorably.

"Sure," I lied, not about to admit I was disappointed that he hadn't tried to hold my hand.

We made our way to where his family was waiting, and I was pleased at how much more control I had over my movements than when I'd first opened my eyes two days earlier. I didn't think I could pass for human yet, not like the Cullens who seemed to have the charade down to a fine art, but at least I was improving. The Cullens would make excellent role models..._if_ I decided to stick around and learn more from them about how to live my life as a vampire.

Not that I seemed to have many choices.

Saddened by the thought, I sighed and lowered myself onto a vacant two-seater couch, neither surprised nor unhappy when Edward took the seat beside me.

"Are you going to call Charlie for me, or do I have to find another way to contact him?" I asked, directing my question to Carlisle and putting my feelings out there in an unequivocal fashion. I wasn't normally so belligerent, but I'd been through a lot and had no intention of being diverted. They could _discuss _my options all they liked, but the outcome was decided as far as I was concerned.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. What followed was a history lesson, of sorts, where I learned all about the tyrannical, serial-killing vampires that policed the vampire community. Carlisle tried to convince me that the Volturi were a necessary evil, but I had a hard time agreeing considering their chosen lifestyle...not to mention what they would apparently do to the Cullens if they found out about their talents, forcing those with abilities into the Volturi guard, and both me and myparents if they found out I'd let them know I was alive.

"There _has _to be a way to get around them," I muttered, not having come this far to give up easily. As part of the history lesson, Carlisle had also told me about the treaty they had with the local shape-shifting Quileute wolf-pack, leaving me wondering which fairy tales were real and which were fantasy.

They couldn't _all _be true, surely?

"Wait a minute," I interrupted when they started going over the same ground again, repeating their dire warnings about the retribution the Volturi would exact upon us all if I didn't keep the secret. "The Quileute know about vampires and have done so for generations, right?"

"The elders do and those whose families have sons that carry the gene and make the transformation," Carlisle acknowledged.

"How come the Volturi haven't wiped themout?" I demanded. "They're a much bigger threat than a few humans who probably wouldn't be believed even if they didsay anything...which my parents _wouldn't," _I stated firmly.

My comment was met with silence for a moment.

"Fair point." Edward nodded, eyeing me with what looked like respect. "The reason the Volturi haven't bothered with the Quileute is because they don't know about them. Carlisle hasn't been back to Volterra since he left over one hundred years ago, and we've had no visitors from the Volturi during that time."

"_Yet_," Carlisle responded soberly. "If Aro were to ever read my thoughts, he would know _everything,_ putting us all at risk."

"Isn't that already the case because of the talented ones amongst you that Aro would want for his guard?" I argued. "Plus, I'm assuming you've got no desire to see an entire Native American tribe wiped out because I'm betting that's what these Volturi would do if they found out about the gene the tribe carries. They're sure to see them as a threat, considering the fact that the wolves can actually _kill _vampires, something the average human can't do." I had their attention and hoped my words would sway their decision, knowing it would be much better if I had their support with what I wanted to do.

"It seems to me that you can't afford to have any contact with the Volturi without putting a lot of people at risk already. In which case, I don't see what difference it would make if my parents know about vampires. They'll never talk or do anything that might put me at risk, and even if they did...which they _wouldn't,_" I reiterated, "there must be thousands of humans who believe in vampires that no one, including the Volturi, takes any notice of."

"Bella has made some excellent points," Edward defended me, and I rewarded him with a huge smile, managing to do a little mesmerizing of my own if his stunned expression was anything to go by.

"It's not worth the risk to our family," Rose argued, herbelligerent tone putting a dampener on my burgeoning optimism

"Well, excuse me if I value _my _family as highly as you do yours!" I retorted, and she bristled, her nostrils flaring in indignation.

Shocked by my uncharacteristic outburst, I sat back as the debate erupted, letting it flow around me while I considered my options.

Alice insisted that it was possible for me to be reunited with my parents without creating a catastrophe as long as we were very careful. Jasper argued that, as a newborn—there was that patronizing label again—I'd be putting them at too much risk _despite _my having proved I could control myself...at a push. Esme agreed that my parents were entitled to know the truth if at all possible, coming from the perspective of a mother's concern for her child, while Carlisle fretted over the risk to both my family and theirs if the Volturi ever found out we'd broken the law. Emmett didn't seem to mind one way or another, just wanting his "new little sis" to be happy. And Edward argued fiercely in my favor.

While I certainly didn't want to put anyone in danger, I couldn't sit back and do _nothing, _letting Charlie and Renee believe that I'd been murdered; or was being held captive and tortured by a serial killer; or had been sold into slavery; or who knew what other horrifying thoughts must be going through their minds. For their sanity and my own, I needed to let them know that I was alive and essentially okay...with or without the Cullens' help...though I had a feeling that Edward would support me in whatever I decided to do, which was _definitely _worth more than a herd of deer.

_~HIS~_

**I know not everyone will agree with my decision to allow Bella to contact her parents, but as the mother of three grown children, foster mother to many more, and a parenting/family counselor, I'm afraid leaving Charlie and Renee to suffer, never knowing their daughter's fate or led to believe she's been killed, doesn't sit right with me…nor does it allow for much of a HEA in my book!**

**Bella's a bit prickly, but I blame that on her newborn volatility and the stress of the situation. Not sure how well I'd be coping, either, though it would definitely help to have Edward looking at me with 'awe'. Swoon…**

**See you Wednesday!**

**xxx TLSue**

**PS: ****Hunted in Seattle has been nominated for Fic of the Week over on The Lemonade Stand! Please vote, as I've been nominated three times now for A Forbidden Love but have never won. Voting closes Wednesday. **


	19. Enough

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm still tweaking away at the Twiverse…and scoring a few points for the poor, beleaguered parents._**

**_Thanks for being such a wonderfully supportive group of readers. I'm so glad you're enjoying this story, and I really appreciate your patience and understanding over my having to slow down a little with my updating schedule and the fact the some of the chapters are a little short - (they get longer as the story goes along)._**

**_Thanks to Squeaky Zorro, Chloe Cougar, and Content1 for betaing this story. Any grammatical errors are mine – because I can't resist dabbling before posting!_**

**_Words: 1828_**

Chapter 19

Enough

EPOV

"Enough!" I shouted, silencing the debate that had raged for far too long. "Bella has been through a terrible ordeal, and she wants...no _needs..._to see her parents. She's only seventeen years old, the same age I was when I was changed. I know what I would have given to be able to see my parents again, what _any _of us would have done to be able to maintain contact with our families. That wasn't possible for us, but I believe it is in this case."

My words had the desired effect, garnering my family's attention and tentative support. I knew from their thoughts that they wanted to help make Bella's transition to this new life she'd been forced into as smooth and pain free as possible, they were just wary of the potentially negative consequences.

"Bella has made some excellent points," I reiterated. "The entire Quileute tribe already knows about our existence, whether as part of their legends or in fact. Alice's recent visions have given us fair warning that if Aro finds out about us, he'll covet our talented members for his guard, and he won't care who he hurts—or _separates—_to get what he wants." All three couples exchanged emotionally charged looks at my words.

"From this point onwards, we need to make avoiding the Volturi's attention our highest priority regardless of whether Bella's parents are made aware of the existence of vampires or not. I, for one, am determined to help Bella in any way I can for her sake...and _my own." _I finished pointedly, not daring to look at the beautiful girl sitting beside me for fear of how she would react to my statement. My family knew exactly what I was referring to.

I'd waited for Bella for almost a century, and I wasn't about to jeopardize our being together now that I'd finally found her. She was my mate, and I would do _anything _for her, be whatever she needed. Right now, that meant helping her overcome the trauma of her abduction and its aftermath by giving her the one thing she wanted most—to be reunited with her parents.

It would take more than that to undo the damage inflicted on her by her vicious captors' brutality and lies. Trusting vampires would not be easy for her. But my hope was that as Bella spent time with us and got to see that vampires could be good _people_, for want of a better word, she'd come to put her faith in us…in _me_.

My family could drive me to distraction at times: Emmett with his teasing and tactlessness; Rose her aloofness and sarcasm; and Alice her interfering and occasionally manipulative ways—though her thoughts about recent events assured me that she was planning to be much more open and inclusive regarding her visions and their potential consequences in future. But that didn't stop me enjoying their many good qualities.

Jasper and I had always related well, his calm and reasoned manner balancing my general moodiness. As for Carlisle and Esme, I couldn't ask for better surrogate parents, mentors, and friends.

I loved them all, and I knew that they loved me and would readily love and accept Bella as part of the family…if she let us.

"Thanks for your support and understanding, Edward" Bella murmured, and I turned to face her, her shy smile almost my undoing. My throat tightened, and all I could do was nod in reply, joy and hope welling within me to have her seated beside me. Our eyes held for a long moment—I could have stared at her all night—but she eventually broke the contact. Turning to address the family, her shoulders straightened perceptibly and she took a deep breath.

"I've made my decision," she stated firmly, and I wasn't the only one awed by her courage and determination. "The last thing I want to do is put your family or my parents in danger, but I can't sit by and let them suffer, which is what they'll do for the _rest of their lives _if they never know what happened to me. And Edward is right...I just really need to see them." Her voice faltered, but she steadied herself and continued. "If you would help me to contact them and then keep them safe from the Volturi, I would be very grateful. But if you don't want to be involved, I understand, and I'll find a way to at least let them know I'm alive and okay and leave you guys out of it."

After making her poignant announcement and request, Bella looked at her wringing hands, a leftover human mannerism that I found incredibly touching, though I dared not reach over and cover them with my own hands as I desired.

Remaining silent, she left us to absorb her words and make our decision. I'd already stated my position, and I eyed each member of my family, waiting for their responses. One by one, they nodded their agreement to Bella's request. Their thoughts, including Rosalie's, thankfully, which would make things a lot easier, acknowledged that Bella was part of our family now, whether she realized it or not.

"We'd be honored to help you." Carlisle spoke for the entire family, and Bella and I both sighed with relief.

I wanted to reach out to her, to pull her into my arms and assure her that everything was going to be all right from now on. But Alice had warned me to take things slowly. A relationship between Bella and me was inevitable—Jasper having confirmed that, though she was confused and overwhelmed, Bella was as equally drawn to me as I was to her. But she was understandably wary after her ordeal at the hands of the nomads...a coven she'd dealt with remarkably effectively but that I still fully intended to destroy for what they'd done. I didn't actually need Alice to tell me that I shouldn't rush my fragile and still very young mate...it was obvious. But the fleeting image my sister had shown me out in the forest of my reaction to the mere touch of Bella's hand had been sobering.

I'd waited for her for such a long time, felt like I'd known her forever—which clearly, I hadn't—and already wanted her so badly that I was at risk of losing control if I wasn't very careful. Up until two days prior, I'd not considered myself a particularly sexual being, having never felt the slightest stirring or inclination toward another person before, human or vampire, male or female. But finding my mate had changed things irrevocably, my newly-awakened desire permeating every aspect of my being and challenging my previously iron-cast resolve. The last thing I wanted to do was frighten or rush Bella in any way, but I would have to be careful. It wasn't easy for newly mated vampires to exercise restraint, but if Bella could do it and she was a newborn, then so could I…at least, that was my hope.

The next hour passed quickly as we discussed the best way to proceed, Alice running through the potential outcomes as varying suggestions arose. In the end, it was decided that Carlisle should contact Bella's father the next morning—he'd be returning from Seattle in the middle of the night—requesting the chief come to the house as we had some information that might be of use in locating his daughter.

Carlisle would need to be very careful with his wording so as not to trigger the wrong response from Chief Swan, one of Alice's visions showing Bella's father arriving with back-up when he wrongly assumed that we were involved in Bella's disappearance and we were wanting to negotiate a ransom. After tossing around a variety of ideas, we settled on a fairly innocuous but hopefully intriguing enough reason for him to agree to see us without arousing undue suspicion. Carlisle would say that he'd learned of some Facebook contact between Bella and Alice, who'd friended Bella when she'd heard she was moving to Forks, that might be helpful to the case. Our main concern was that Bella's father come alone, and Alice was confident that this scenario was the most likely to assure that outcome.

From there, it was a relatively simple matter of explaining—and _demonstrating—_to the practically minded officer of the law that, unbeknown to him, his town was inhabited by mythical creatures, amongst which we were numbered. While not responsible for his daughter's brutal abduction and consequent transformation—or rescue for that matter; she'd accomplished that all by herself—we were trying to help her adjust to what had happened to her and safely contact her parents.

It would be interesting.

"What about my mom?" Bella asked once the details were finalized. "Do you know where she is?"

"Still in Phoenix." Alice surprised Bella with her response. "She wanted to come to Seattle, but your father convinced her to stay where she was in case you got in contact or on the slim chance that you'd changed your mind about coming to Forks and were headed back to your old home."

"They think I'd do that?" Bella squeaked. "That I'd deliberately run off and not contact them, not to mention leave my purse containing all my money and ID in an alley?"

"I'm sure they don't," Carlisle interjected. "I think your father is clutching at straws in an attempt to not lose hope."

Bella slumped back in her chair, her expression disconsolate.

"Don't worry," I murmured, angling toward her while being careful not to allow our bodies to touch. The awareness between us had steadily risen while the discussion had continued. And I, for one, was seriously concerned about the possibility of spontaneous combustion occurring if our knees were to accidentally brush together.

"You'll be reunited with your father tomorrow," I continued, attempting to focus my attention on Bella's needs rather than my body's rapid awakening. "We'll work out the best way to contact your mother from there."

She nodded, a tremulous smile curving her lips, but I was saddened to note that it did not quite reach her eyes. Her tongue peeked out to wet her lips and then she caught her plump lower lip between her teeth while she continued to stare at me.

I swallowed hard before gently blowing out a long, slow breath to dispel the desire that surged within me, shooting Jasper a grateful glance when I felt his calming influence.

"What do we do while we wait?" Bella asked, her long, dark lashes fluttering as she gazed up at me.

Her innocently spoken words triggered a bombardment of suggestions from my family, some useful, some hopeful, and some—well, _Emmett's—_downright ribald. All I could think about, though I was probably reading too much into it, was that Bella had said "we" not "I".

It was enough for now.

_~HIS~_

**_I'm still thinking, poor Edward, but for very different reasons than before. ;)_**

**_Reviews are like gazing into Edward's eyes and watching them darken. Phew…_**

**_xxx TLSue_**


	20. Curiosity

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I think the new stills for BD2 look amazing, and I can't wait to see the 'surprise ending' Bill Condon mentioned. Squeee!_**

**_Thanks to my wonderful betas, Chloe Cougar, Squeaky Zorro, and Content 1, for neatening up this chapter. It is completely my fault for adding in another 1000 words before posting!_**

**_Thanks to everyone who voted for Hunted in Seattle over on The Lemonade Stand. I don't think it made the top five (I can't check while I'm at work I'm afraid), but I appreciate your support. :) _**

**_Words: 2437_**

Chapter 20

Curiosity

EPOV

"I'm sure you still have many questions." Esme came to my rescue by responding in my place, my own brain taking me on a rather fanciful tangent while I was lost in the beauty of Bella's face and the joy of having her safely at my side.

"Questions?" Bella murmured, dragging her eyes away from mine and snapping me out of the spell I'd fallen under...the mesmerizing effect of being close to my mate.

Jasper's mental snort caught my attention, and I looked over to see him watching me, his smile indulgent.

_I'm just enjoying soaking up the first love vibes, _he admitted with a slight shrug of his shoulders. _Though I've got to admit, it's a relief to know that I can do something about all the unresolved sexual tension you two are emanating. I wouldn't fancy being in your shoes, as I'm not sure how long before you lose it…or combust._

I hid my smirk, his thoughts mirroring my own, and focused on Esme's reply to Bella.

"I thought you might like to hear our individual stories of how we became vampires and maybe a little about the sort of lives we lead, the things that we like to do and are still able to enjoy," Esme continued, and I sent her a grateful smile.

Bella was indeed curious, and the evening passed with us taking turns telling our stories and answering the questions they inspired in our newest member.

"So _that's _why you say 'newborn' with a sneer," Bella addressed Jasper, her tone musing after he explained about his early years training a highly volatile newborn army before he left his creator and met Alice.

"My apologies if my attitude has offended you in any way, Bella," Jasper responded, pouring on the Southern charm. "You have my utmost respect for the way you've handled yourself, not to mention my admiration for the extraordinary level of control you've shown…for a newborn."

"Heck…for any vampire," Emmett defended her, and I shot him a grateful smile. "Bella's smart, kick-ass, and she's got amazing control. It's the only reason Edward's not pinned to a wall somewhere…"

His snicker broke off when the pillow that had been resting beside my elbow struck him forcefully in the head.

"Excuse me?" Bella didn't seem to understand his reference, and I shook my head, brushing it off.

"Don't worry about my brother. He's being an idiot," I assured her, smiling with relief when she seemed content with my reply.

"What about your story, Edward?" she asked, sending my mood crashing. "How did you become a vampire? What sort of a newborn were you?"

I'd held back, deliberately leaving my tale to last. Other than Jasper, I'd killed more humans than any of us, though that had been a deliberate decision rather than the result of newborn volatility. I'd already decided to wait and share that part of my story later, but as I'd feared—and was proven right—Bella was taken aback to find out my true age.

"You're one hundred and four?" she asked, her eyes widening and her tone aghast. I squirmed in my seat but couldn't deny the truth.

"But...but you only _look _seventeen, or maybe a little older." None of us looked our true age, but I wasn't surprised that it was my age and appearance that Bella was concerned about since I was the one she was inexorably drawn to...or so I hoped. Jasper assured me it was true, but I couldn't help feeling a little uncertain. All the others had known that they'd found their soul mate within the first few minutes...or _seconds..._of meeting. Of course, I didn't expect the same reaction from Bella, considering everything she'd just endured, but I was essentially in uncharted territory.

"I can pass for early to mid twenties if I dress the part and alter my body language accordingly," I explained, hoping that might reassure her, and she nodded thoughtfully.

"How old do you think I could pass for, if I was dressed right and wore make-up?"

My mind stuttered at the thought of Bella's stunningly beautiful features masked or enhanced by artificial means...I really couldn't decide which it would be. Fortunately, Rose stepped in, answering for me when my mouth opened and closed a few times but nothing came out.

"We could easily do you up to look twenty-two or three, Bella, certainly old enough to pass for an adult if you needed to," she said, and Bella seemed relieved by Rose's assurance.

One thing that clearly bothered Bella was the idea of attending high school repeatedly.

"Of course I want to graduate," she said, not seeming overly upset when we'd explained that she'd need to do so online, as her red eyes alone would make public appearances impossible for at least a year. "But I want to go on to college and then do something with my life, something worthwhile."

I was sure she didn't mean to be disparaging, but her comments on the futility of repeating high school when we were all such highly intelligent, multi-skilled, and talented individuals made us all feel a little uncomfortable. The suggestions she made, after only knowing us for a matter of hours and being a vampire for all of two days, for what we could do with our endless hours to make a difference in the world, yet still keep our true natures a secret, showed that we had become complacent in a number of ways...not just regarding Alice's visions or the Volturi.

Public high schools were actually a difficult place in which to maintain our anonymity, exposed as we were to so many highly observant young humans on a daily basis. Instead, we could choose homeschooling as a cover for the activities we would actually prefer to be doing, or remain a little more hidden so that our lack of aging wasn't so obvious. While Carlisle might have to deal with moving every ten years or so, working, as he did, in close proximity with so many educated and astute individuals, the rest of us could pursue our hobbies, interests and passions online or by using pseudonyms and a range of business or other fronts.

My family's thoughts reflected my own opinion of Bella's impassioned and innovative ideas, and I couldn't help thinking that Carlisle had been right. Bella was going to keep all us on our toes, bringing a fresh perspective to a life that we'd begun to live in a decidedly pedestrian and limited manner.

The conversation steered in other directions, eventually turning to Bella's extraordinary escape from her captors and her wise decision not to try and destroy them herself—that was _my _job, one that I would relish, and something that would have most likely put her at risk of harm. Then we asked about how she'd come up with the idea to hide her tormentors' limbs to stop them from coming after her and about her efforts to find sustenance without harming any humans. She seemed embarrassed by our praise and expressions of amazement at her achievements, but she answered our questions readily until we'd exhausted the topic. It was only then that we discussed the specifics of how we would handle her meeting with Charlie, which was when things became..._interesting._

"I don't think you'll have too much trouble resisting the lure of your father's scent," Alice assured her. "It's almost as if when you make your mind up, Bella, your shield...or whatever it is that kept you hidden from us in Seattle...helps you to stick with what you've decided."

Some aspects of her shield appeared to operate subconsciously, as I _still_ couldn't read her mind even though she said she wasn't deliberately blocking me. My frustration at being denied access to her thoughts had waned at little as I found the experience oddly soothing and most definitely intriguing. Not knowing what she was thinking also gave me an excuse to watch her constantly, as I sought to discern from her body language the feelings and intentions behind her words. I was certain that I would have stared at her just as avidly even if I could read her mind, but at least this way I had a semi-legitimate excuse for my behavior.

"Is that how your talent works, Bella?" Esme asked, voicing the desire curiosity we all felt to know more about the unusual manifestation of Bella's ability. "You decide something and that makes it happen?"

"I didn't even know it was a 'talent,'" Bella responded thoughtfully. "To be honest, it just started out as a desperate sort of pleading or prayer that I felt compelled to keep repeating." She shrugged, her expression rueful.

"It is not at all uncommon to turn to one's maker for support in a time of severe crisis," Carlisle encouraged. "Though it would seem that these particular prayers have a way of reinforcing your own will and resolve."

"Plus affecting those around you to an extent," I added, and Bella looked to me, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"Your scent should have led us to the entrance of the drainage system that you used to escape from the warehouse in Seattle, but the trail cut off, ending abruptly in the room where you were hiding," I explained. "And I felt a definite dulling of my hearing and sense of smell when you ran from me through the treetops, though I could still _see_ you, and I followed you by sight."

"Its obviously quite limited," she mused.

"How so?" Jasper asked, intrigued by how Bella's talent might be useful in the future to both her and the family.

"Well, I don't have magical 'genie in a lamp' type powers where I can just wish for whatever I want and make it so." She smiled but then her expression turned sad. "I've wished, begged, pleaded a hundred times for none of this to have happened to me, but…" She shrugged and once again dropped her gaze to study her wringing hands, the action poignant rather than sweet this time.

"Vampire talents and abilities all have their limitations," Carlisle agreed, his tone soothing. "But we promise we will all do our best to help you to adjust to this new life you've unexpectedly found yourself living. None of us chose it, Bella," he continued, and she looked up to meet his kindly gaze. "But we've learned to make the most of the opportunities it affords us and even delight in certain aspects."

"You have to admit that running and climbing are a lot of fun," I offered, wanting to ease her sorrow the only way I knew how, though the irony of my trying to sell her on the benefits of vampirism was not lost on me or my family. Fortunately, they kept their cynical and bemused thoughts to themselves.

"You'll never get tired or sick. Your mind can multi-task in ways you've probably not yet explored, and your memory won't _ever _let you down," I continued earnestly, though my last comment was met with a few snickers. The benefits of perfect recall could sometimes be outweighed by the inconvenience of never being able to forget. "Learning languages or any new skill or hobby you are interested in will come easily to you, and you'll have all the time in the world to travel, explore, learn, create…whatever you desire."

"As long as I stay out of the sunlight and don't mind looking like a teenager for the rest of forever," Bella muttered, rolling her eyes.

"A very beautiful teenager who could easily pass for a young woman," I murmured, losing myself in her sad but hopefully interested gaze.

"At least you'll still be able to keep your parents in your life," Alice interjected after a few moments had passed, and I started at the sound of her voice. I'd actually been so entranced that I'd barely noticed my family's thoughts, forgetting that Bella and I were not alone.

Bella smiled at Alice's reminder, clearly relieved that she would be able to see her father again soon.

"It doesn't look like you're going to have too much trouble with the newborn bloodlust that most of us battled," Alice continued, patting Jasper's hand in acknowledgment of his perpetual regret for not having come to our way of life sooner. "But there are a couple of things you can do that would help to reduce the risk of things going wrong."

"Anything. I'll do anything not to harm put my parents," Bella answered, sitting forward in the chair.

"The first thing is to make sure Jasper stays close so that he can use his talent if needed," she said, and I groaned when I saw where she was going next, widening my eyes to try and dissuade her...a futile exercise when my diminutive little sister's mind was made up.

"The second thing..." Alice smiled and shot me a smug look. "...is to get used to holding Edward's hand, as that will actually calm you down, in the right _setting,_ even more quickly than Jasper's talent."

"Alice," I hissed. "You told menot to push it," I reminded her, and she just shrugged, ignoring my obvious mortification.

_Trust me; I know what I'm doing,_ she insisted, and I groaned, shoving my fingers through my hair.

"Why would holding Edward's hand help me to stay calm?" Bella asked, her eyes darting to my face. "Is that because you think he's my 'vampire soul mate?'" she added, rolling her eyes and forming finger quotes in the air before ducking her head.

"Well, that's for the two of you to work out in your own time," Alice replied, keeping her tone gentle and surprising me with the circumspect nature of her answer. "But I _do _know that having him sit close beside you, _especially_ if he's holding your hand, will make it much easier for you to keep calm and maintain your control...that and going for a hunt before your father gets here, of course."

"Oh...okay then. If you think it will help." Bella nodded, peering shyly at me from beneath her long lashes.

Once again, I was bombarded with suggestions about how to successfully woo Bella, but I had no intention of take a step as important as holding her hand with my entire family watching.

"So...Bella," I murmured after taking a big breath, feeling every bit as nervous as if I actually were only seventeen years old and extending an invitation to a girl I liked for the first time. "Would you like to come see my room?"

_~HIS~_

**_Yes! Yes please….I want to see Edward's room! _**

**_Just kidding…sort of. ;)_**

**_Xxx TLSue_**


	21. Mesmerized

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse and missing my Twifriends.**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas and friends, Chloe Cougar, Squeaky Zorro, and Content1, for helping me out with this 'quick fic' that is somehow morphing into a whole lot more.**_

_**Three days felt like too long, so I'm updating a little early. I know some of you guys are a bit frustrated with Bella for resisting Awkward's (love that name) sweet charm. The poor guy is trying so hard to get it just right. Let's see how he does in the bedroom...**_

_**Words: 1564**_

Chapter 21

Mesmerized

BPOV

"So, this is my room." Edward stood just inside the doorway and gestured for me to enter. I stopped in the middle of the long, rectangular space and turned a slow circle, curious to know more about the boy/man/vampire whom I couldn't help feeling drawn to despite our only just having met.

He seemed nervous, but he had no need to be as his room was amazing.

"This is great," I assured him, taking in the wall of windows on one side, that made it feel like we were standing in the forest, and the wall of CDs, vinyl albums, and books on the other.

"You've got so much music," I murmured, awed. "But I guess you've had a long time to collect it all," I mused, still finding it hard to comprehend that this beautiful-looking boy was actually old enough to be my great-grandfather.

After studying the extensive music collection that featured singers, musicians, bands, and orchestras from every genre I'd ever heard of, and a few I hadn't, I looked around the room. A guitar stood on a stand in the corner, and a pile of books sat on a low table beside a long, black leather couch.

"No bed?" I blurted and then wished I could snatch back the words. Edward had pointed out the rooms belonging to the other members of his family on our way to his room on the third floor, and they'd all contained enormous, king-sized beds despite the fact none that none of them needed to sleep. Of course, being couples, they had _other _uses for the beds.

"I could get one," Edward offered with a shrug, and then he frowned and shook his head, clearly embarrassed by what he'd said…what it intimated. Emmett's booming laughter coming from downstairs didn't help.

It was my turn to shrug, having no idea how to respond to his words or what to make of the fluttering sensation they caused in the pit of my stomach.

I couldn't deny that I was attracted to Edward, but then…who wouldn't be? He was gorgeous. Sitting beside him on the couch in the living room while we'd been talking about so many important things, making crucial, life-changing decisions, I'd felt embarrassed by how incredibly aware I'd been of his presence. With all that I'd been through and all that was still going on, it seemed crazy that I should be caught up in the middle of my first-ever crush. I had a feeling the Cullens would say it was more than that, all part and parcel of my having been turned into a vampire and finding my "mate," something I didn't even want to think about after my experience with Laurent and James. _Not _that I wasn't interested in Edward, I just didn't feel like I should be…yet. While I was beginning to accept that I could never go back to my old life, that didn't mean I was ready to fully embrace the new one.

In the meantime, I had other things to focus on, namely contacting my parents and seeing them again without putting any of us at risk from discovery, the Volturi, or my own _newborn—_I didn't like the term, but I could see how it applied—tendencies. Since my becoming comfortable around Edward was part of that process, at least enough to hold his hand, getting to know him a little more seemed a good place to start.

"So…tell me more about yourself," I asked, and his expression lightened, the worried frown he'd worn since we'd entered his room replaced with a hopeful expression.

"What would you like to know?" He cocked his head to the side, a cute half-smile curving his lips and distracting me for a moment.

"Anything…everything," I declared, shaking my head to clear it of the sensual fog that seemed to engulf me whenever I stared at Edward too directly.

Smiling more broadly, which didn't help my mental clarity, he took a few steps closer. "_Everything_ could take a while, as I have a century's worth of memories and experiences stored away up here," he murmured, tapping his temple.

"Start with the basics then," I suggested, licking my suddenly dry lips. "Where were you born? What was your family like?"

Edward happily obliged me, and I was soon caught up in the captivating tales he had to tell of his childhood and teenage years back in the early 1900s. But I was surprised to discover how many gaps there were in his memory of his human life, a hazard, he explained, of the human/vampire transformation process.

"I don't want to forget my family or my old life," I admitted worriedly.

"You won't," Edward assured me, coming even closer, close enough for me to be engulfed by his intoxicating scent. It was somehow sweet _and _spicy, reminding me of cinnamon, sunshine, sometimes something a little..._darker. _I swayed a little on my feet after breathing it in.

"Would you like to sit over on the couch?" he offered, and I nodded, feeling oddly breathless despite the even odder fact that I no longer needed to breathe. Taking a seat facing him, our knees were close but not quite touching, and I was hyper aware of those few inches.

"Why won't I forget?" I asked, running my fingers absently along the seam of my jeans. Everything still felt a little strange beneath my fingers, as if I could feel _too _much, making out each individual fiber. Narrowing my eyes for a second, I _saw_ the fibers also, fascinated and distracted by my astonishing new senses.

"Bella?" Edward softly called my name, and I looked up to see him watching me, a bemused expression on his face. "It's all a little overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it. The reason you won't forget is because I won't let you. I'll help you to recall your memories before they fade, so that way, you'll have them forever. But really, it shouldn't be too difficult as you're going to keep in contact with your family, so your new vampire memories will just build on your old human ones."

"Oh, that's good," I murmured, trying not to be overwhelmed by his nearness or the velvety, smooth cadence of his voice.

We chatted for a while longer, with Edward answering questions about his long and fascinating life and occasionally throwing in a question about my own, which I answered in as much detail as I could to aid my memory.

"So, no girlfriends?" I asked shyly, dropping my gaze and hiding behind the curtain of my hair after a comment he'd made about occasional bouts of loneliness and the pitfalls of being the only single member of a family of mated couples. He reached toward me, as if he was going to push my hair back from my face or maybe tuck it behind my ear.

"No…no girlfriends," he acknowledged, letting his hand drop.

"Wow…" I couldn't help murmuring. One hundred and four years was a long time to stay single. "How come?"

"I just never met anyone I was interested in that way…before," he whispered.

"Before…" I breathed in return, looking up to meet his intense gaze and unsurprised to see that his eyes had darkened. I had a feeling mine had, too.

For a long time, neither of us spoke, but then I decided it was up to me to take the next step.

"You want to try holding hands?" I asked, catching my lower lip between my teeth, a nervous habit of mine. "I mean…it's no big deal or anything, is it?" I added, trying to sound casual. I'd never really held hands with a boy before, not in an intentional sort of way, and Alice had freaked me out a little with her cryptic comments.

"Of course not," Edward agreed, nonchalantly shrugging one shoulder and reaching his hand toward me with the palm raised.

I took a deep breath, feeling silly for needing its calming influence. But then I couldn't help noticing how perfectly still Edward was sitting and how very intently he was watching me. His pupils had dilated even further so that there was only a sliver of amber circling the pitch black centers, and his rich, intoxicating scent had deepened...darkened.

Ever so slowly, I reached out with my own hand. Hesitating, I held still when there was just a fraction of an inch between us, my eyes flitting between Edward's intense gaze and our hovering hands.

"It's okay," he breathed, and I nodded, closing the distance so that the tips of our fingers touched.

Sparkling, dazzling, overwhelming sensation shot up my arm, and I snatched my hand back in surprise.

"It was just static," Edward assured me, quickly reaching for my fingers again, but I hesitated, holding my hand curled in front of my chest in a protective way. The feeling that had coursed through me wasn't like any static shock I'd received before. For a start, it hadn't hurt or felt unpleasant—quite the opposite in fact. My arm still tingled, the butterflies his touch had triggered low in my belly continuing to pulse in a strangely liquid way.

"Bella?" Edward entreated when I continued to hold back. Mesmerized by his low, husky voice and the captivating look in his eyes, I reached out to him again.

_~HIS~_

_**Sizzle and sigh... **_

_**I was in love with my hubby for three years before he asked me out (we were just good friends, and he's a bit older than me.) I still remember bumping knees under the table at the restaurant on our first official date thirty years ago. New Year's Eve fireworks have nothing on what I felt. Fortunately...he felt it, too! **_

_**Anyone else have an amazing 'first touch' memory? **_

_**I love to hear your thoughts on the story...or anything else for that matter.**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	22. Unexpected

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just tweaking the Twiverse and having fun reminiscing.**_

_**Thanks for sharing all the lovely first touch or first love stories. They were a delight to read and put such a smile on my face. :D  
**_

_**Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this slightly less angsty story. **_

_**Words: 1631**_

Chapter 22

Unexpected

BPOV

This time when we touched, I was ready, but that didn't make the shock of sensation any less intense. I drew in a ragged breath, but I didn't pull away this time. Letting my fingers slide slowly over Edward's until the palms of our hands were pressed lightly together, our fingers brushed tantalizingly over one another's wrists.

Whimpering softly at the truly exquisite feel of his hand touching mine, I couldn't help wondering if my touch was doing to Edward what his was doing to me. His eyes were riveted on our joined hands, and I moved my fingers slowly forward. Trailing them lightly along his forearm, I reached the smooth, silky skin just inside of his elbow, his own larger, masculine fingers doing the same. We both took a minute to explore, pausing only when our fingers were entwined, our forearms pressing together, and our elbows touching.

"Oh," I breathed, coming up on my knees. The feel of Edward's hand wrapped around mine made me hungry for more...more of his touch, more of the amazing, tingling sensations coursing through my body.

"Don't move," he ordered, his expression turning fierce.

I flinched at his tone, but then _he _moved, lifting me onto his lap so that my knees straddled his hips.

A deep growl rumbled in his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. Our bodies pressed together as my hands found their way into his hair, tangling themselves in the silky soft locks. And then somehow…we were kissing...with our mouths open, lips brushing and suckling and tasting one another like we'd done this a thousand times instead of never before. It wasn't awkward or strange, even when it was. Our noses touched, our cheeks brushed against one another as we found the right angles, straining to get close enough. Just when I thought it coldn't possibly get any better, Edward brushed his tongue over my lips...gently...tentatively asking permission to invade my mouth.

My answering moan was all the answer he needed. His tongue slid over mine and into my mouth, his sweet, intoxicating taste exploding on my taste buds.

I'd never imagined how intense and overwhelming kissing could be or how good it would feel. One taste of Edward wasn't enough…one hundred…one thousand…it would never be enough. I had to get closer. My hands wanted…no _needed…_to be touching his bare skin, and I felt the back of his shirt tear beneath my fingers even as the thought formed in my mind.

Tensing, shocked by what I'd done, I went to pull back.

"No!" Edward growled, pausing only long enough to rip the shirt the rest of the way and toss the ragged pieces aside, leaving him naked from the waist up.

I stared at him for a moment, stunned, but then he yanked me back against him. We started kissing again, just as frantically as before, but now my hands could touch and explore his bare flesh. The feel of smooth, silky skin rippling over his firm muscles as they flexed beneath my fingers was another level of amazing.

But still...it wasn't enough.

Moaning, whimpering, I moved restlessly against him. My breasts tingled, and I shamelessly pressed against Edward's chest, trying to find relief from the ache inside me.

With another of those incredibly sexy-sounding growls, Edward put his hands on my hips and tugged me even closer. His actions brought me hard up against his very obvious erection, and I could feel myself...wet, hot, and pulsing where our bodies pressed together.

"Oh, yes," I moaned, my head falling back as I rocked against him. My body was awash with sensations, new and exciting. My only thoughts were of Edward, how wonderful it felt to be in his arms, how _hungry_ I was for his touch, his kisses, his everything.

"Bella," he groaned, bending to caress my neck with his lips. Grazing my ultra-sensitive skin with his teeth, he then soothed with his tongue where he'd lightly bitten. I squirmed against him, the pressure building as I desperately sought more.

It was like I'd been caught up in an avalanche of feelings, both physical and emotional. While my body and senses had come alive, I could barely think for the passion and pleasure that overwhelmed me.

Except for a small voice of reason in a far corner of my mind.

_Bella, what are you doing? m_y conscience pleaded. _It's been less than a day...you barely know each other. You need to slow things down, or you'll regret this. Please...slow down._

As if my thoughts had a direct line to my responses, I felt the heat of my desire cool just a fraction. Edward seemed to sense it also, for he lifted his head, staring intently into my eyes.

"We should stop," he breathed. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

_No! _Another part of me screamed in rebellion, the part that had drunk the man's blood, knew how to fight against and disable my captors, and had taken down and killed a large, wild animal with ease. Those actions had been instinctual, all part of my new vampire nature, and those same instincts warred against my rational self.

I _wanted _Edward, even more than I'd wanted blood.

Throwing myself against him, we fell across the wide, leather couch with my body on top of his. My mouth found his, and I sucked his lower lip between my own before invading his mouth with my tongue, moaning as his tongue stroked mine. My lower body ground against him, and I could easily feel his erection pressing right where I needed it to be.

Edward's hands gripped my hips, holding me still, and I briefly worried that he was going to stop us by lifting me away from him. But he groaned and surrendered to the overwhelming passion that flowed between us, lifting his head to deepen the kiss and thrusting up against me so that our bodies rubbed together in the most amazing way.

I couldn't imagine anything feeling better than this, but then his hands found their way beneath my shirt, and I realized I'd been wrong. Shuddering at the feel of his fingers stroking my back and waist and hips, I moaned against his mouth.

Ignoring the fact that I was shy, that I'd never even kissed a boy before today, that I didn't _do _things like this, my body moved rhythmically against him. Pressing the most intimate part of my body against the most amazing part of Edward's, I was swept away in how wonderful it felt...how wonderful _he _felt. The pressure built inside of me, reaching a seemingly impossible level and hovering just short of _something _that I suspected would be amazing. The ache inside me grew until I wasn't sure I could bear it anymore...and then all heaven broke loose inside of me.

Where being turned into a vampire had felt like an eternity in hell, coming apart in Edward's arms was the complete opposite. Pleasure...more than pleasure, this was ecstasy...pulsed out from my core in waves. With my body arching and rocking against him, I cried out in response to the radiating joy.

"Bella!" Edward shouted hoarsely, holding me tightly as he moved against me. As the beautiful sensations continued to course through my body, I kissed him passionately while he shuddered and pulsed beneath me.

In the aftermath of what felt like an explosion of both passion and pleasure—something I'd never experienced before—we held each other close. Reason gradually returned as the sensations waned, but I couldn't find it in myself to regret what had happened..._yet_. Not only had it had been wonderful, _life-_affirming after my repeated near-brushes with death, it had caused a change to occur within me that I instinctively knew nothing would ever alter…even if I wasn't quite ready to acknowledge it fully.

Edward and I were meant to be together.

"Bella?" he murmured after we'd lain still and silent for a while. "Are you all right?"

I nodded against him, my fingers continuing to trace patterns in the light dusting of hair on his bare chest.

"Would you mind telling me what you're thinking?" he asked, frustration evident in his tone. "I can't read your mind, and I have to admit to being worried."

"Thinking?" I murmured, rising up on my elbow to look into his golden gaze. "I'm thinking that that was very..._unexpected._" My shy smile triggered an answering one that lit up Edward's beautiful face. "But I'm a little worried, too."

"There's no need to," he said, sitting up and grasping my shoulders, his expression concerned. "I promise, I'll take care of everything. I'll keep you safe from the Volturi, and James and Victoria if they should return, and the wolves if they become a problem; and please don't think I'll be expecting us to do more or even what we just did again...not that it wasn't wonderful...but I respect you too much to take advantage. I'm sorry I lost control, and I promise it won't happen again, unless you _want _it to, but..."

Silencing my panicked new one-hundred-and-four-year-old vampire boyfriend with a finger to his lips, I quirked a brow. I was looking forward to doing exactly what we'd done again...and a whole lot more...though, admittedly, we probably did need to slow down a little.

"I'm not worried about any of those things," I told him, and he sagged with relief. "I was just wondering how my holding your hand is supposed to help me to be around Charlie. As personally, I think the two of us losing control and making out in front of my dad will freak him out more than my becoming a vampire."

_~HIS~_

_**Poor Awkward's nervous ramblings make me chuckle. I don't think he was expecting their first kiss to turn out quite like that.  
**_

_**Am I pushing too hard to ask for 'first kiss' stories? Mine was aged eleven, playing spin-the-bottle in a haystack during a horse-riding camp and not particularly memorable—other than the location. First kiss with hubby eight years later was a lot better lasting several hours if I recall. ;)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	23. Control

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm still reeling from the statement Rob made at the Cosmopolis Premiere…the suit ...the hair…the tan…the look. Wow!_**

**_Thanks for sharing your wonderful 'first kiss' stories. From encounters in the kindergarten, to quite a few spin the bottle tales, to drunken kisses with strangers, to a first kiss that didn't happen until after the wedding, they were just lovely. My favorite was a first kiss with literal lights and sirens…as it coincided with a fire alarm being set off!_**

**_Thanks to Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this little tale._**

**_Words: 2040_**

Chapter 23

Control

_"__I'm not worried about any of those things," Bella told me, and I sagged with relief. "I was just wondering how my holding your hand is supposed to help me to be around Charlie. As personally, I think the two of us losing control and making out in front of my dad will freak him out more than my becoming a vampire!" _

EPOV

I smirked at Bella's comment and the image it inspired. Of course, I was mortified by my loss of self-control...but I couldn't find it within myself to regret the extraordinary events that had just transpired between us. I was supposed to be helping her adjust to her new life and prepare for the meeting with her father, not taking advantage of her newborn vulnerability. But I'd never felt this way before, not even remotely close.

The sheer and utter bliss of holding Bella…of kissing and caressing her…was more wonderful than anything I'd ever imagined. Feeling her climax in my arms and then having the same thing happen to me was far beyond anything I'd ever experienced.

All I'd wanted to do was hold her hand.

I knew that Bella needed time to recover from her ordeal. Then hopefully, she'd come to accept me as her friend and _eventually _her mate. I wasn't planning on asking for more, but when we'd touched, my much-vaunted control had disappeared. To my relief, Bella didn't seem angry with me though I wouldn't blame her if that emotion arose once the euphoria of our shared release had faded.

"We're still touching," I murmured, playing with the fingers that she'd thankfully not withdrawn. "And we're not losing control."

"Yes, but that's because we just..._you know,_" Bella muttered, her gaze skirting mine. "But what about after we've been apart for a while? Touching you feels so amazing, and I couldn't..._we _couldn't...control ourselves. What if that happens again?"

_Not if, when. _I suppressed a grimace at Emmett's chuckled thought, grateful he'd kept his opinion between the two of us rather than vocalizing it for Bella to hear. The entire family was purposefully keeping quiet while internally celebrating the events unfolding in my bedroom.

Reaching to stroke Bella's hair back from her forehead, I smiled reassuringly...and to hide my chagrin. "I'm sorry. I was unprepared for the intensity of my reaction, but I won't lose control again," I assured her, hoping I'd be able to keep my promise.

"But _I _might," she whispered.

"You could try using your talent?"

She nodded uncertainly. "Yeah...I guess so. It worked for the other sort of..."

Her voice trailed off, and the unspoken word hung in the air along with the scent of our impromptu lovemaking. Lust...

_Edward, _Carlisle mentally projected to get my attention. _I'm sorry to disturb you, but you need to take Bella hunting so that the two of you can be back in time for when I call her father._

"We'll be right down," I murmured, turning my head toward the door to let Bella know that I was addressing someone else. Startled, nonetheless, she sprang from her place beside me to end up crouching by the window.

"It's all right." I sat up slowly so as not to alarm her further. "We just need to get ready to go hunt before your father comes over."

"But your family...they would have heard us," she hissed, rising to stand and quickly tucking her shirt back into her jeans before finger combing her hair.

"I'm afraid that's one of the perils of living in a house filled with vampires," I admitted, her actions reminding me of my own shirtless and decidedly disheveled state. "But don't worry; they're happy for us." Ecstatic was actually closer to the mark.

Needing to use the bathroom to clean up, a first for me for this particular reason, I asked Bella to wait for me while I changed and donned a new shirt. Mine lay in several pieces on the floor. Looking as embarrassed as I felt, she nodded, and I quickly grabbed a new shirt and clean pants from my closet.

"Ready?" I asked when I returned, tentatively reaching my hand out to hers.

She hesitated, and my heart plummeted. It didn't look like she was going to take my hand again. But then she furrowed her brow with obvious concentration, and I felt the effects of her talent at work, my senses dulling slightly. We both held our breath when she placed her hand in mine, but while it felt wonderful to be touching her again, our reactions were manageable.

"I think it's working," she sighed with obvious relief, and we shared a rueful smile before heading downstairs to brave my excited but, unfortunately, less than tactful family. They seemed to think Bella's and my make out session was tantamount to an engagement announcement, and I quickly hushed their effusive and premature congratulations.

"Cut it out," I growled when Emmett didn't take the hint, joking about my "finally becoming a man," Bella clearly mortifed by the reference

"Sorry, Bella," he boomed, prompted by his none-too-pleased wife. "I didn't mean to say the wrong thing; I'm just real excited for our Eddie boy. Seriously, no one should be a virgin for _that _many decades."

"Ummm...he's not...we didn't...we're still..." Bella stammered, her expression horrified.

"Thanks, Em...that was a big help," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "We're going hunting." Shaking my head, I ushered Bella toward the door.

"Sorry," I mumbled as we raced across the lawn behind the house.

"S'okay," she murmured, squeezing my hand. "Your family seems pretty cool..._embarrassing_, but cool."

"Too true." I nodded, and to my relief, she chuckled.

Having hunted twice the day before, I didn't need to feed, but I quickly found a small herd of deer for Bella. This time, she didn't hesitate in targeting her prey. Watching her bring down the deer, her control and expertise already improved from the day before, I felt a resurgence of the desire that we'd only recently appeased. From Bella's body language and the way she watched me while crouching over and drinking the warm blood from the animal she'd killed, I knew she felt it too.

Jasper and Alice weren't far away, having followed us in case Bella's almost mythical control should falter. Of course, they were more concerned about the bloodlust that would put the local humans at risk not the mated-vampire variety that was usually considered a beneficial side-effect of hunting. For a moment, I thought I might have to call on Jasper for help when Bella finished feeding, the tension between us palpable as she walked purposefully toward me.

"Carlisle's ready to call your father as soon as we return to the house," I dutifully reminded her, and she froze. The frown returned to her brow, and I felt my control slowly return.

"Thanks," I murmured, grateful and disappointed in equal measure.

"Don't mention it," Bella muttered sounding as disgruntled as I felt. Snatching hold of my hand, she dragged me with her toward the house.

"You did incredibly well with your first solo hunt," I complimented her, hoping to ease the sting of what she might have taken as rejection.

"I did, didn't I?" Her scowl lightened and she smiled up at me, seeming genuinely pleased. "My clothes aren't torn or even very messy, though I think I'd better change before I see my dad," she added, swiping at some blood stains on the front of her blouse.

"Of course." I nodded, and after returning to the house, I waited for her in the hallway while she showered.

My breath hitched at the sight of her when she emerged from the bedroom looking utterly entrancing. She'd braided her hair, and I couldn't' decide if it made her look older and more sophisticated or younger and even more innocent than she already was. Emmett would have just said it looked hot. Her unique scent was heightened by the steaming hot shower, and my nostrils flared as I drew the intoxicating aroma deep into my lungs.

"Bella," I breathed on a sigh, and she smiled, lowering her head to look up at me through her lashes.

_Edward, hold it together,_ Jasper warned me from downstairs. Alice hindered more than helped my faltering control by showing me that I was but two steps away from pinning Bella up against the wall and taking up where we'd left off in my bedroom.

_Now isn't the time, _I scolded myself. _Bella needs to see her father._

Shaking my head, I took a step back, and the frown returned to Bella's brow.

"Sorry," I murmured, already impatient for the day when we wouldn't need to use her talent to control our feelings.

Scowling adorably, Bella put her hand in mine, and we both sighed at the contact. While not the overwhelmingly pleasurable experience it had been the first time we touched, it still felt wonderful.

I wasn't sure if Bella understood or was ready to acknowledge what our reaction to each other signified. But there was no rush. She _was _my mate, of that I was certain, and I would give her all the time she needed to be ready to take our relationship further.

The phone call to Bella's father went as well as could be expected, Chief Swan sounding understandably wary but readily agreeing to a meeting at the house. The sound of his police cruiser coming down the driveway was Bella's and my cue to move to the dining room where we planned to wait until it was time for her to reveal herself. Alice's visions had shown that things would go best if the bulk of the explanations were given before Chief Swan saw his distinctively altered daughter for the first time.

"Chief Swan, welcome," Carlisle greeted, opening the door before Bella's father knocked. "Please come through to the living room."

"Carlisle, Esme," the Chief responded, his voice gruff. "I'm happy for you both to call me Charlie as long as we are all aware that I'm here on official business."

"Of course, Charlie," Esme murmured, the gentle smile I could see on her face through the eyes of the rest of my family evident in her voice. She offered the Chief a drink, but he declined. What I could read of his partially clouded thoughts revealed that he was impatient to get down to business. He was curious as to what information Carlisle had, however remote the possibility that it might be of use in finding his daughter.

Bella had been abducted Friday night, completed her change Monday afternoon, the day I'd discovered her significance to me when I'd viewed her picture at Forks High, and escaped from her captors Tuesday night. Wednesday, she'd hid out in the hospice just outside of Seattle, meeting up with us that afternoon near Forks. It was now Thursday morning, and she'd been missing for five and a half days, the dark rings under her father's eyes and bleakness of his expression testament to how badly he'd suffered during that time.

Following Esme into the living room, the Chief's eyebrows rose when he saw my siblings were all present. He'd seen them before around town but hadn't met them individually, and Carlisle quickly made the introductions, explaining that they had information to share relating to Bella's disappearance.

The Chief didn't comment, though Jasper's reading of his emotions revealed surprise, wariness, and a tentative hope.

"So what have you got, Carlisle?" The Chief got straight to the point as soon as he'd taken a seat. "What's this about Bella having a Facebook account? Her mother doesn't know anything about it."

"That's because she doesn't have one," Carlisle answered honestly. "My saying so was a ruse to get you to come to the house to speak with us, alone."

Bella's father did a double take at this announcement. "Explain yourself," he demanded.

Carlisle nodded, his expression somber. "I promise to do so in full, but I'd like to begin by saying that Bella is alive and well. You have no need to worry for her safety."

"What?" The Chief exploded, standing and reaching for his gun. "Where is she? What the hell have you done with my daughter?"

_~HIS~_

**_Whoa...understandable reaction from Charlie?_**

**_If you haven't already guessed, this Edward is a little different from Canon. He fell for Bella in a picture (and Alice's visions when she shared them,) and he's much less controlled. Or maybe that's not so much OOC as the result of their both being vampires? _**

**_Sorry I didn't reply to many reviews from last chapter as real life and work dramas got in the way. But I love hearing your thoughts on this story…or anything else for that matter. :D_**

**_xxx TLSue_**


	24. Implausible

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm attempting a twitter ban for a while to try and stop obsessing about other peoples' lives. Sigh...  
**_

_**Thanks to Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar for betaing this story.**_

_**Sorry about the cliffhanger. I tend to forget how much they stress people out. To make it up to you, here's the next chapter...**_

_**Words: 1348**_

Chapter 24

Implausible

EPOV

Jasper blanketed Bella's father with calm, enough to make him stagger and fall back onto his seat. The gun slipped from his fingers, and Alice snatched it before it could hit the floor, racing outside to place it in the glove compartment of the police cruiser and returning before the Chief even noticed her absence.

"We had nothing to do with her abduction," Carlisle assured him, speaking quickly. "But we were able to discover who took her and help her when she escaped."

Groaning and shaking his head, Charlie sat forward, his expression anguished. "And she's all right? You've actually seen her?" he entreated.

Bella moved restlessly at my side, her hand squeezing mine so tightly I felt the bones grind together.

"Sweetheart?" I whispered, prizing her fingers apart a little. "It's going to be okay, but we need to wait and give Carlisle a chance to explain what's happened before we go out there."

She nodded, her anguished eyes on my face as we focused on Carlisle's reply.

"Yes, and you'll be reunited with her shortly, but first, Bella wanted me to tell you about what occurred while she was being held prisoner."

The blood drained from Charlie's face, and Carlisle hurried on. "She's all right..._now..._but she's been through a lot. We felt it best if we explained what happened to her before you see her."

The Chief nodded jerkily, gesturing for him to continue.

"You're an observant man, Charlie, and I'm sure you've noticed _anomalies _about me and my family...certain differences."

"What has that got to do with Bella?"

"_Everything_," Carlisle stated emphatically, and Charlie frowned as he looked from Carlisle, to Esme, and then to the other members of my family seated in their pairs around the room.

"You're all very pale, very _attractive,_" he acknowledged with a shrug. "You've got the same odd, gold-colored eyes even though only Jasper and Rosalie are related, if I remember correctly."

"No relation," Jasper admitted. "That's just part of our cover."

Charlie's eyebrows shot up, but then he continued cataloging what he'd observed. "Whenever we've shaken hands, I've wondered if you've got a circulation problem as they're so cold," he addressed Carlisle. "And I know there's some problem between your _family _and the Quileute elders. That's all I've got," he concluded with a shrug.

Speaking quickly and in a matter-of-fact manner, Carlisle explained the reason behind our feud with the local wolf tribe—their propensity to _shape-shift _into wolves and our being the "cold ones"' of their legends.

"Wait!" The Chief held up his hand and then sat for a moment, blinking in a way I'd seen Bella do in Alice's visions...the ones when she was still human.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that my best friend, Billy Black—who happens to be in a _wheelchair_, I might add—transforms into a werewolf with the full moon?"

"No, not Billy and not werewolves," Carlisle clarified, going on to explain about the process in more detail, how it only affected the younger members of the tribe—those who possessed the gene—if vampires came into the area, and that there were only three members of the current pack that we knew of, Sam, Jared, and Paul.

Charlie just shook his head, his expression disbelieving, but he gestured for Carlisle to continue.

In a matter-of-fact manner, Carlisle explained what had happened to us, the fact that we were once human, but having been infected with a _virus_ of sorts, we'd been transformed into another species. He went on to detail our unique attributes: our not aging; our not needing or being able to sleep; our inability to consume human food or go out in the sunlight without our identities being compromised; our super speed and strength; and, finally, that while others of our kind fed off the blood of humans, killing them in the process, we chose to survive by living off the blood of wild animals.

The Chief listened intently without interruption, astutely putting the pieces together but waiting for Carlisle to finish before commenting.

"Carlisle, you know that I respect your skill and dedication as a surgeon, not to mention the contribution you and Esme have made to Forks. But you can't possibly expect me to believe that you, that _all _of you..." He gestured to the rest of the family. "...are vampires?"

"As implausible as it sounds, it's the truth," Carlisle countered. "We realize this is a lot to take in, and we'd be happy to demonstrate our speed and strength if that would help to convince you."

The Chief shrugged, clearly perplexed and wondering how Carlisle's bizarre and fanciful tale could possibly have anything to do with Bella. With a nod from Carlisle, Emmett and Rose stood as we'd planned.

"If you'd like to look through the window at your cruiser, Rose and I will show you what we've got," Emmett offered cheerfully, and then he and Rose disappeared from the Chief's sight, appearing almost instantly out in the front yard next to his car.

Bella's father shot to his feet, his eyes wide as saucers and his heart pounding wildly. Crossing to the window, he watched Emmett lift the police cruiser high in the air with one hand and then pass it over to Rose who spun it around before placing it back down facing the opposite direction. Then they came back inside, virtually materializing in front of Charlie, the front door slamming and a rush of air the only evidence to him of their having moved. He staggered backwards but remained standing, taking a moment to assimilate what he'd seen.

"All right...I believe you," he stated gruffly. "Now tell me what the hell this has to do with my daughter. Was Bella abducted by a vampire?"

Bella whimpered beside me, and I drew her into my arms, knowing that this part of the story was going to be difficult for her to hear, having painfully endured it already.

"Yes, she was," Carlisle acknowledged. "By a group of three nomadic vampires who have been hunting in Seattle for the last month, the _serial killer _the authorities have been investigating."

"But they didn't kill her? You said she was all right?"

"She is," Esme interjected. "She's perfectly well and looking forward to being reunited with you, but we felt it best to tell you about what has happened to her first."

"What did they do to her?" Charlie asked, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper.

"She was badly injured in the abduction, and typically would have been killed very quickly. But one of them decided he wanted to _keep _her," Carlisle explained, his expression filled with compassion. "He bit and infected her with his venom, triggering the three-day transformation that would change her from human to vampire. He had hopes that she would want a _relationship _with him, for want of a better word. But a day after her awakening, she fought them and escaped, showing incredible ingenuity and bravery in the process."

"Newborn vampires are typically extremely volatile and dangerous," Jasper continued the explanation. "Driven by their thirst for blood, they are completely lacking in self-control. But Bella is quite unique, showing remarkable restraint. She made her way to Forks where we intercepted her and showed her how to hunt animals for food, convincing her to let us help her contact you in a way that would keep you _both _safe."

"She's here?" Charlie demanded. "Bella is here?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm here."

Unable to wait any longer, Bella made her way with me at her side to the living room door at her father's desperate query. Her voice shook, and I could feel the tension emanating from her body, not needing Jasper's assessment to know how worried she was about her father's reaction to Carlisle's revelations.

"Bella?" Charlie took a step toward her then hesitated, taking in the dramatic changes in her appearance, in particular her red eyes.

"My God, it's true," he whispered. "You're a vampire!"

_~HIS~_

_**Oops...another cliffhanger, but somehow I don't think Charlie's about to reject her. Not sure what he's going to make of Edward, though. ;)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	25. Intentions

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm still tweaking...and tweeting...lol!**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, for all their help, and my wonderful readers for all your support. **_

_**Words: 2147**_

Chapter 25

Intentions

BPOV

I flinched at Charlie's tone and the look of horror in his eyes.

"Yes, it's true," I whispered, clinging to Edward's hand for comfort. "I'm so sorry, Dad...I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" he exclaimed, stepping toward me, then glancing to Carlisle when he placed a restraining hand on his arm. "What do you have to be sorry about, Bells? This isn't your fault."

"I should have stayed in the hotel and not gone out on my own in the city. I shouldn't have gone down that alleyway to help the girl, but honestly, Dad, she looked harmless. I couldn't tell she was dangerous, and I never guessed she was a vampire."

"Of course, you couldn't have," Charlie insisted. "I don't care about any of that, Bells. I'm just so glad you're alive. Can I...can I _touch _you?" he asked, looking around as if for permission.

I huddled into Edward's side before responding, trying hard not to let Charlie's human scent overwhelm me.

"Will you be okay, Bella?" Edward asked, his worried gaze meeting mine.

"Yes, but stay with me?" I pleaded, knowing how strange my behavior must look to my dad but unwilling to risk approaching him without Edward's support.

It had all happened so fast. I'd gone from realizing that I could very possibly like this strange boy/man, to a touch, to making out, to making _love_, though, of course, I knew there was much more we could do, in a very short space of time. In the process, whatever barrier I'd subconsciously put up around my heart to try and protect myself amidst all this craziness had crumbled. I didn't know if I believed in love at first sight, or first _kiss, _but whatever this was between Edward and me...it was overwhelming. I needed him, wanted him, and already couldn't bear the thought of being apart from him.

What my dad would make of it, along with everything else, was another matter.

Edward's reassuring smile bolstered my confidence a little.

"It's probably a good idea to hold your breath," he advised, and I did as he suggested, _I will not hurt my dad, _on repeat in my mind.

Letting go of Edward's hand, I reached toward Charlie with my arms outstretched.

"Wait!" Edward shouted just as I was about to engulf my dad in the biggest hug I'd ever given him. "Don't squeeze," he warned me. "You'll crush his bones. You're even stronger than a normal vampire at the moment, and you haven't had much practice at controlling your strength."

Freezing in place, I stared at Charlie, aghast.

"How about I just give _you _a hug?" he suggested, and I nodded, whimpering with a myriad of emotions when I felt his too-warm arms encircle me, the pressure of his squeeze almost imperceptible.

Stepping back, he stared at me, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly. He'd gone very pale, his hands were shaking, and I could only imagine what he must think of my new cold, hard body and blazing red eyes.

"Why don't we all take a seat?" Esme suggested, and Charlie stumbled back before collapsing into his chair, tears flooding his eyes.

"Bella, I'm so glad you're alive," he rasped. "But what did they do to you?"

Tearless sobs shook my shoulders at his understandable dismay, and I turned to hide my face against Edward's shoulder. I dreaded the horror and disappointment I would see on my dad's face when I confessed what I'd done.

"Bells?" I heard Charlie whisper after a moment. "It's all right, sweetheart. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Everything's going to be okay."

Looking up, I saw that he'd moved to the edge of his seat, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward, watching me intently. I took a seat opposite him with Edward close beside me, one arm around my shoulder and the opposite hand crossing his body to entwine our fingers. Charlie frowned for a moment, eyeing us curiously, but then his gaze sought mine.

"It's okay, Dad. I want to tell you what happened," I whispered. "I just...I just don't want you to hate me for the things I did."

"I could _never _hate you, Bells," he declared. "Whatever happened, I'm sure you only did what you had to to survive."

Between Charlie's words and the feel of Edward's hand stroking my arm, I calmed a little, though I wasn't sure how long it would last. I still hadn't told my dad my story...or what I'd done.

"How about you start at the beginning?" Charlie suggested, and I nodded, resisting the urge to take a big breath before starting. My talent seemed to be working, and I wasn't finding it too difficult to cope with being so close to my dad's tantalizing human aroma, but I wasn't about to take any chances.

Tentatively at first, and then more quickly as the words began to flow, I told Charlie about what had happened to me. Starting with my trip into the Seattle tourist precinct, something I'd skipped over when telling him my plans for spending the night in the city, I then told him about hearing Victoria calling for help and everything that had happened right up to my waking and discovering I wasn't human anymore.

He flinched a few times, and tears flowed from his eyes when I spoke about having my leg broken and the awful pain of the transformation, but he didn't interrupt except to ask a few clarifying questions or murmur encouragement. He was a good listener that way, and I imagined it made him an excellent police officer.

"So what happened then?" he prompted when my hesitation extended for a few moments.

I avoided his gaze, studying Edward's and my laced fingers instead.

"Then things got even crazier," I admitted, my voice a mere whisper. Haltingly, I continued, determined not to leave anything out no matter how ashamed I was to admit to the truth.

"Bella, stop," Charlie interjected when I begged his forgiveness for my part in killing the man that Laurent had brought for me to feed from. "It wasn't your fault," he insisted, his tone the one that brooked no nonsense. "_You _didn't kill that man, your assailants did. You had no choice in what was going on, and you only did what you had to to survive. Am I right?" he addressed his question to the Cullens who all emphatically agreed.

"Thank you," I murmured, my voice trembling. "Thank you so much for understanding. I _promise _I won't ever do anything like that again, Dad. I refused them when they tried to make me hurt someone else, and then I fought them, which is how I escaped."

"Tell me," Charlie urged, and I recounted the rest of the tale, embarrassed to have to admit to my multiple episodes of burglary and theft though not quite as worried about his reaction now that I'd told him about the worst thing that had happened. Again, he listened intently, asking questions and reassuring me when I stumbled over the difficult parts or stopped to apologize for my multiple felonies. Several times he expressed his admiration for my bravery and quick thinking, bringing a very relieved smile to my face. He was particularly impressed that I hadn't hurt the man in the hospice after Jasper interjected to explain that what I'd done was considered impossible for a newborn. I shrugged it off, putting it down to my freaky new talent, but Charlie's praise and understanding meant the world to me.

"And then the Cullens found me...or rather, I _found _them. It was a set up, of course, as Alice saw where I was going to be ahead of time," I added dryly, briefly explaining about her psychic ability. I still didn't know what to make of Alice's rather hit-and-miss talent, and I could only imagine what my straight-laced dad would think of it. He'd always scoffed at anything he considered "New Age," rolling his eyes at whatever latest fad had caught Renee's interest. But then, neither of us had believed in fairytales or monster stories either before now.

Returning to my own, fantastical tale, I told him how the Cullens had offered to help me.

"Once they'd convinced me they weren't bad like the other vampires, I decided to trust them. Edward showed me how to hunt deer, so I didn't have to drink any more of that disgusting cow's blood." I shuddered. "Then we came back to the house last night. After I'd cleaned up, they offered to answer my questions, and they've pretty much talked non-stop since then, explaining to me all about life as a vampire...though my priority was getting in touch with you and Mom, of course."

I purposely skipped over the part about Edward and me making out, though Charlie's curious glances at Edward and the way his eyes kept focusing on our joined hands informed me that I'd have to address it eventually.

"You want to tell me about this young man?" he asked, and it seemed that my time was up already.

"Maybe I could help with that one?" Carlisle offered, and Edward tensed at my side.

"It's all right, Edward," Alice spoke up. "It's better to be honest and get everything out in the open. Bella's dad will have to know about the two of you soon enough. It's not like you'll be able to keep your relationship hidden."

Since Alice could have just thought her words at Edward and her eyes were on my face as she spoke, I was fairly certain they were meant for me. But I wished she'd been a _little _more discreet.

"Relationship?" Charlie's voice rose along with his eyebrows, and I groaned.

Using the same doctor-like tone that he'd used to explain about shape-shifting wolves and vampires, Carlisle told Charlie all about the vampire-mating phenomena while I cringed with embarrassment.

"It appears to be wired into a vampire's DNA for us to bond permanently with our mate if we are lucky enough to find them," Carlisle explained, glancing lovingly at Esme. "The resulting connection creates a depth of feeling unparalleled in human experience. It never wanes, growing stronger with time and lasting for the rest of our potentially very long lives...essentially _forever."_

I still found myself thinking of vampires as "them" and not "we," but listening to Carlisle, I realized my perception was slowly changing. A part of me wanted to dismiss the whole vampire mating thing, in particular the part where, right smack in the midst of my abduction, torture, transformation, and dramatic escape, my new vampire body and mind had decided that _now _was the right time to fall in love. The idea was ludicrous...except that it somehow wasn't, the sublime feel of Edward's arm around my shoulder testament to that fact.

"Is this true, Bells? Is this what's happened to you?" Charlie asked, dragging my attention away from Edward's beautiful face.

I shrugged, and Edward flinched beside me. It wasn't my intention to hurt his feelings, and I shot him an apologetic look though surely he had to understand how strange and awkward this whole situation was for me. He'd had a century to get used to the idea of being a vampire while I'd had less than three days. Neither of us had been in a relationship before, but at least the idea of finding one's soul mate and committing to them for life after little more than a glance wasn't an entirely new concept to him.

"It's all pretty new to me, Dad," I murmured, my words meant to reassure Edward...that and the way I stroked his fingers and leaned into his side. "Obviously the timing is ludicrous." I huffed out a breath. "But all I know is that holding Edward's hand makes me feel much calmer...well, _some _of the time."

Emmett snorted, and Rose smacked him on the back of the head, but fortunately, it happened too quickly and quietly for Charlie to notice.

"I think Edward could be very _important_ to me," I added, glancing shyly at the boy beside me before looking back to my dad. "And obviously, having his and his family's help is going to make all of this much easier to handle."

Charlie nodded and then addressed Edward. "What about you, son? How old are you, and exactly what are your intentions toward my daughter?"

"I was changed when I was seventeen, the same age as Bella," Edward answered promptly. "But I've been alive since 1901, which makes me one hundred and four."

Charlie's eyes widened but he didn't interrupt.

"As for my intentions..." Edward's eyes met mine for a moment, worry and tenderness warring in their depths. "...I plan on protecting, cherishing, and doing everything within my power to make sure Bella is safe and happy for the rest of her life."

_~HIS~_

_**Not really a cliffie...more a sweet, swoony, Edward style declaration. **_

_**Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing, reccing, and tweeting this little story. Your encouragement and support has been amazing.**_

_**Enjoy your weekend!**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	26. Deception

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm running out of chapters and better get writing!**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas and friends, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, for all their help.**_

_**This is a bit of a transition chapter, but extra long as most of them are from here on. ;)**_

_**Words: 2725 **_

Chapter 26

Deception

"_As for my intentions..." Edward's eyes met mine for a moment, worry and tenderness warring in their depths. "...I plan on protecting, cherishing, and doing everything within my power to make sure Bella is safe and happy for the rest of her life."_

BPOV

Edward's declaration was a little overwhelming. I smiled at him, but tentatively. We'd known each other for less than a day though I understood that it seemed a lot longer than that to him because of Alice's visions. TAhe images and scenes had been both detailed and extensive, showing us getting to know one another over a much longer period of time than we'd actually had together.

Though I was convinced that I would have been attracted to Edward regardless of whether he was human or vampire—he was practically a _god, _after all—I found it a little hard to believe that he would have been as interested in me if I'd still been human. Alice was adamant that we were destined to be mates either way, but it was hard to imagine.

Edward's words played over in my head, and I tried to find the right words to respond...when my dad wasn't watching, of course. "I think you're really cute, I like kissing you, and I hope you'll be my boyfriend," didn't seem quite in the same league as a lifelong commitment to cherish and protect.

_Wasn't that just another way of saying that he loved me?_

Breathing out a long, slow breath, I turned back to my dad who was watching me carefully.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," he said, giving Edward his scary cop look. "As long as you realize that Bella actually is only seventeen years old. After everything that she's been through, she doesn't need to be pressured into doing anything or making any decisions she's not ready for."

My reaction to his words was complex. A part of me wanted to squirm with embarrassment, another part was oddly grateful to him for being protective of me, and my vampire side wanted to shout from the rooftop that Edward was _mine _and I was ready for absolutely _anything..._as long as it was with him.

It seemed wise to stay silent though I squeezed Edward's hand reassuringly and pressed my thigh against his. He pressed back, and I gasped as sparks of pleasure shot up my leg, igniting mini-fireworks in my belly.

_Please don't let me lose it and make out with my insanely hot new boyfriend in front of my dad, _I half-prayed, half-pleaded, and my tingling nerves thankfully calmed down.

To my relief, the topic of conversation changed to what needed to happen next. It was soon apparent that Edward's family had been busy exploring options and formulating a plan while he and I had been occupied.

"We need to get Bella's face _off _the news and out of the press and social media as soon as possible," Jasper stated implacably. Fortunately, Charlie had immediately grasped the importance of keeping the identity of vampires a secret from human authorities, saying that no daughter of his was going to end up as a lab rat. A brief explanation of the existence and role of the Volturi and the dire consequences of their becoming aware of Charlie's knowledge about vampires reinforced the need for secrecy.

"If she remains classified as a missing person, the case will never be closed," Jasper continued. "Bella's picture and the story of her disappearance will circulate for months and be revisited often."

"I agree." Charlie nodded. "Unless we resolve her disappearance in some way, this won't go away for a long time...virtually ever. So what do you suggest?"

The Cullens exchanged uncomfortable looks, and Edward groaned, dropping his head.

"Edward?" I puzzled. "What's wrong? What are they planning?"

"They're _planning_ to paint you as a rebellious teenager who ran away to New York or somewhere equally anonymous to be with a man you'd formed a relationship with over the Internet, rather than come and stay in Forks with your father and finish high school," he explained, and my jaw dropped.

"What?" I repeated. "No way! I'd never do that. That's ridiculous!"

"It's actually not a bad idea, Bells." Charlie shocked me by supporting this awful plan. "You're almost eighteen, so if we can make it look like you've gone off of your own volition, the authorities shouldn't take it any further. It will help if I can convince them that we're in touch, and I'm satisfied that you're okay."

"But they found my purse in the alleyway, and I never returned to the hotel room for my clothes," I argued. "The facts don't fit with the story."

"They would if you admitted, by phone or email, that you staged your abduction as you thought that was the only way your father would let you go," Jasper countered, shocking me to silence.

"But that's reprehensible," I eventually whispered, horrified. "I would _never _do something like that, deceiving everyone and deliberately putting my parents through hell."

"_We _know that, Bells," Charlie placated sympathetically. "But if we play it right, the state police should buy the story and drop the case, which is the important thing."

"We've considered several other options," Jasper continued, his expression earnest. "But they all create too many questions and complications. If you were to appear somewhere publicly, we'd have both your newborn thirst—which, I believe, would be much harder to manage around both strangers and groups of humans—and your eye color to contend with. Contacts will only last for a couple of hours in your eyes before they dissolve from the venom.

"If you could overcome those obstacles and say that you've escaped your captors, you mightget away with refusing a medical examination, but the police would insist on interviewing you. They'd want descriptions of your assailants, a detailed account of where you've been and what occurred, not to mention forensic samples from your clothing and beneath your nails.

"We could try and convince them that you've been murdered, but that would still keep your picture in the press while the hunt continued for your killers. We couldn't prove your death without a body, and other than a few strands of hair from your hairbrush—which the police already have in their possession—there is nothing left of your human DNA to plant with the remains to try and fool the forensics experts..."

Raising a hand to silence Jasper, I turned and hid my face against Edward's chest. Murmuring soothingly, he held me close and stroked my hair while I battled my dismay at how the story would make me look. I wanted to argue, but there was no point. They'd thought of everything.

Sighing heavily, I took a moment to consider who would actually be affected by the deception before turning back to face everyone. I hadn't been that well-known at my old school in Phoenix. My few friends would be puzzled that I'd not given them a hint of my supposed intentions and wonder at my extremely out of character behavior, but I guessed they'd put it down to my reserved nature hiding a rebellious streak. My beloved Gran was gone, and other than that, only Charlie's, Renee's, and Phil's opinions counted.

"Okay," I conceded in a small voice. "But Mom has to know the truth first. There's no way she would believe the story. She'd argue and insist that something else was going on, that I was being coerced or manipulated somehow."

"Bella's right." Charlie backed me up, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "We need to get Renee and Phil up here before we make any announcement. She's packed and ready to come at a moment's notice, so I'll just give her the go ahead as soon as we've finished this discussion. I'm assuming you have a way to plant the evidence we'll need to validate the false story, _backdated _of course?"

"Not a problem, Chief," Emmett replied with confidence. "We'll get right on it." He and Rose flitted from the room, giving Charlie a start.

"Emmett's our resident IT nerd, and Rose is pretty savvy with computers, too," Edward explained at my puzzled look.

"They'll be able to make it look as if you've been corresponding with _someone _for a while, using fake Facebook and messaging accounts," Jasper added. "They'll fabricate evidence pointing to you having obtained a cellphone to contact him directly without informing your mother, as you were worried about her finding out about your older boyfriend."

Edward's chest rumbled softly at Jasper's words, and I patted his thigh soothingly, the gesture not lost on my dad.

"The story will present as an ill-thought-out decision made by an impulsive teenager manipulated by her older, would-be lover who didn't want the hassle of dealing with her police officer father," Jasper continued. "When she sees the coverage and fully realizes the implications of her actions, she has a change of heart and decides to contact her parents to let them know she's okay...but she's too ashamed to come home."

"The authorities will be annoyed, but I don't see them pursuing the case further," Alice added.

"Well, that's just great," I muttered sarcastically, shaking my head in dismay at the way I was going to be portrayed.

"I know it's difficult, but the people that matter will all know it's not the truth," Edward tried to reassure me. "Unfortunately, subterfuge and deception are all part and parcel of living as semi-immortals amongst humans, especially in this modern, technological age."

Carlisle sat forward, drawing my attention. "This way, you can continue to be Isabella Swan and keep legitimate contact with your parents for many years without raising suspicion, as long as you avoid anyone else who may have known you from before your change," he added, and I tried to take comfort from their words.

In the larger scheme of my having been turned into a vampire, wounded pride and a tarnished reputation were a small price to pay for being able to have my parents in my life and them knowing that I was alive and okay.

"But what about everyone in Forks, Dad?" I couldn't help saying. "They'll all think your daughter is a terrible person and it will reflect badly on you."

Charlie shrugged. "Honestly, Bells, after the nightmare of the last five days, I couldn't care less what anyone thinks or says. I thought I'd lost you." Tears filled his eyes, and he had to take a moment to compose himself. "Maybe a change of scene wouldn't be a bad thing, anyway," he murmured. "Bella can't be spotted around here as her picture has been too well circulated, so I'm assuming we'll have to move?"

"You'd come with me?" I asked, surprised.

"I don't know if I told you how much I was looking forward to having you in my life for a while before you headed off to college, Bella, but I'm not about to give up on the chance to spend some time with you. Besides, you're my seventeen-year-old daughter, and if you think I'm going to abandon you...or let _these guys,_" he gestured to the Cullens, "take you away from me, you've got another think coming."

I smiled at Charlie's protective manner though I felt Edward tense at my side. I didn't imagine he'd pictured my dad as part of the package deal when he decided I'd make a good girlfriend—not that there seemed to be a lot of choice in the matter when it came to a vampire finding their mate—but I was relieved at Charlie's acceptance and determination to support me in my new life. As cool as the Cullens might be, I barely knew them, and I wasn't ready to leave _both _my parents behind. Less than six days without seeing or contacting Renee, and I already missed her like crazy.

"There's no need to make any permanent decisions just yet," Carlisle suggested. "In fact, Alice predicts that we should be fine to stay on here for a while longer, as long as Bella stays out of the public eye, which she'll have to do for the first year until her eye color changes to amber, and she's got more absolute control of her thirst. She could finish high school online—with Edward staying home to keep her company—and then we could all move to a new location suitable for Bella to attend college when she's ready. You'd be welcome to come with us, Charlie, or you may prefer to continue in the job and living the life that you've chosen here in Forks and just keep in contact with Bella, including regular visits. It's what you would have done if she'd gone off to college in a more normal fashion, but the choice is yours. As to the fuss over Bella's abduction-cum-abscondence, I imagine that will die down in time."

"It will, and fairly quickly," Alice said with surety.

Charlie rolled his eyes at the prediction, and I wondered how he would take it when we told him about the other supernatural talents that some of the Cullens possessed...or my own odd ability to have things go my way if I willed it. I could imagine how he'd react to finding out Edward could read his mind, not that I wanted to know what my dad was thinking. He was clearly contemplating Carlisle's suggestions, and I had to admit finding the idea of just staying here at the Cullens' house near Forks for a while was appealing.

So much had changed in my life, and if I was going to have to stay hidden anyway, at least I could spend this first stage of my unexpected new existence in vaguely familiar surroundings. I hadn't been looking forward to Forks' gloomy weather, but that didn't bother me anymore. I was no longer affected by the cold, and I could actually see an upside to the almost perpetual cloud cover. I also liked the idea of Edward keeping me company while I finished my studies. It wasn't as if he needed to complete high school again, and I imagined the Cullens could come up with a plausible reason for him dropping out. They seemed very experienced at the whole _deception _thing.

"The only ones whose opinion I'd be overly worried about are my best friends, Billy and Harry," Charlie eventually commented, bringing my easily distracted thoughts back to the unpleasant topic of my supposed rebellion. "They both knew how much I was looking forward to having Bella come and stay with me and how devastated I was when I thought she'd been..." he shuddered, unable to finish the sentence. "I don't know how good my acting is, and I'm not sure I could keep this whole thing a secret from them since they both know me so well."

"As Quileute elders, they're going to have to know about Bella's presence here anyway," Carlisle mused. "They'll detect that there is another vampire staying with us from picking up her scent while she'd out hunting, and they'll come to investigate. Once we've alleviated their concerns, we'll need to renegotiate the treaty to include Bella."

"Speaking of which," Esme queried. "Do you think they're going to be upset that _we_broke the treaty by telling Charlie about the wolves? We couldhave left that part out, I suppose."

"We didn't have a choice," Edward argued. "Whatever we decide to do—whatever _Bella _wants—her father will be spending a lot of time either visiting us here or shifting with us to a new location. The Quileute would have been suspicious and worried regardless. This is one situation where we need to get everything out in the open."

I was glad Edward saw it that way as it augured well for whatever relationship we'd have in the future if he didn't believe in keeping secrets...well, other than the ones we had no choice but to keep.

_~HIS~_

_**A bit of a miserable way to cover up Bella's abduction, I admit, but it was all I could think of, and believe me, I racked my brains over it! At least Edward's learning fast in this version of events.;)**_

_**Hmmm...not sure I'd want Dad tagging along when I headed off to college, but I appreciate that he's not ready to lose his little girl just yet. He only just got her back...twice.**_

_**Thanks for your support. See you Wednesday!**_

_**Xxx TLSue**_


	27. Interference

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm writing...I'm writing...**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas and friends, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, for all their help.**_

_**Thanks for all your amazing reviews and support. There's a bit of an AN at the bottom to explain where I'm going with this story...or rather, where I'm not. ;)**_

Words: 2316

Chapter 27

Interference

BPOV

I counted the hours until Renee's and Phil's arrival that night. Edward assured me that everything was going to be okay, but I couldn't stop worrying that something would happen to prevent me from seeing my mom; that the Cullens would change their minds; that Alice's visions would say it was too dangerous; or even the distant Volturi would somehow discover I'd broken their laws and come to punish us. But nothing bad happened, and once the Cullens had prepared Renee and Phil with the same background story they'd given Charlie, I came into the room.

It was a good thing I'd prepared myself ahead of time: going for another hunt with Edward, Jasper and Alice, and focusing my talent by stating the simple mantra, _I will not hurt my mom or Phil,_ the words repeating automatically in the back of my thoughts. Renee didn't hesitate for a second between spotting me and her throwing herself into my arms. I let her hold me, still too afraid of hugging her warm and oddly soft-feeling body back, and it felt so good. Laughing and sobbing, her cries tearful while mine were dry, she kissed my face and patted my hair before running her hands up and down my arms.

"You're so cold!" she exclaimed, and I shrugged.

"I don't _feel _cold," I assured her. "I feel..._great._"

It was a strange thing to admit, but it was the truth. My new vampire body coursed with more energy and vitality than I'd ever known before, despite the fact I hadn't slept in a week.

I wasn't all that surprised when Renee took the existence of vampires and shape-shifting wolves in her stride. Learning that the world was co-inhabited by not-so-mythical, supernatural beings fit quite readily into her world view though her main concern was knowing that I was alive and essentially okay. Phil was a little unsettled by the situation, but he would do anything for Renee and promised to keep the secret that would put _all _of our lives at risk if it ever became public.

One reaction that did surprise me was Renee's response to the disclosure that I wouldn't be able to have children—not something I'd thought to ask about until she brought it up—as she'd always been so insistent on me not making the same mistake she had by becoming a mother too early.

"Not that I regret having _you, _Bella," she'd always clarify. "But it would have been a lot easier and made a lot more sense if I'd been older, certainly out of my teens."

Naturally, I was saddened by this news, but not devastated. After semi-mothering Renee for the last decade, I was in no hurry to embrace parenthood. I figured it might bother me when I was older, when enough years had passed and I reached the time in my life when I probably would have thought seriously about becoming a mother. For now, it just wasn't an issue; neither did it seem a good idea to borrow trouble. I had enough on my plate.

We'd barely recovered from the excitement and drama of Renee's and Phil's arrivals when the next group of visitors appeared on the Cullens' doorstep: Billy Black, Harry Clearwater, and three young men: Sam, Jared, and Paul, who came through the forest in the form of _enormous _wolves. Charlie had been right, and as soon as he'd returned home from seeing me at the Cullens, Billy and Harry had been waiting for him, worried and suspicious. When they came to the Cullens home and caught sight of me standing next to Edward, it took some fast talking to prevent a fight. They couldn't seem to accept Charlie's explanation of what had happened to me and kept insisting that the Cullens must be responsible for my change.

"You're lying to cover the fact that you've broken the treaty," Billy argued as the wolves snarled and prowled threateningly closer to where we were standing on the Cullens' porch. It looked like they were after _me._

"They want to destroy Bella!" Edward shouted, pulling me behind him, the others quickly forming a line of defence. "They think because she's a newborn that she's a threat to the town."

"No, wait." Charlie's friend, Billy, seemed shocked by Edward's words and wheeled his chair in front of Edward's family, addressing the three wolves. "Regardless of what's happened to her, she's still the Chief's daughter. We at least need to hear her side of the story."

"Bella's done nothing wrong!" Charlie shouted, standing protectively in front of me, which I gathered was a futile gesture. But it touched my heart, knowing my dad would try to defend me against such terrifying creatures.

"We didn't change Bella," Carlisle insisted, his voice rising authoritatively above the sound of both wolf and vampire growls. Edward, in particular, had crouched low and was snarling quite ferociously.

"Her father told you what happened, and it's the truth. Bella was attacked by nomads hunting in Seattle, who changed her rather than killed her," Carlisle reiterated. Something in his tone commanded the wolves' attention, possibly aided by Jasper's talent at work or my own desperate chanting that everyone would please, calm down that had an effect. Either way, the wolves backed up, their hackles remaining raised but at least they appeared to be listening.

"Bella's captors wanted to make her part of their coven, but she overpowered them and escaped," Carlisle continued. "We intercepted her on her way to be with her father, and we're teaching her our ways."

"Yeah...it's a bit late for that," Sam scoffed after changing into a human before my eyes—which I quickly averted when I realized he was naked—and then donning the shorts he had tied to his leg. "I suppose you expect us to ignore all the humans she killed in the city and on her way here?"

"She didn't kill anyone," Edward defended me, standing and wrapping his arm around my shoulder when I tucked myself close to his side. I still felt bad about the man whose blood I had drunk though I had come to accept that I was not responsible for his death. "She refused to kill the humans her attackers brought for her, and as soon as she escaped, she went to an abattoir and forced herself to drink cow's blood. Since then, she's killed a deer each day, which is more often than the rest of us hunt, but a newborn's thirst is a lot stronger for the first few months. You want to hold that against her, too?"

Though harshly delivered, Edward's words helped to defuse the volatile situation. Once everyone had calmed down, we were able to have a more reasonable if tense discussion. When given the choice, the three wolf-men requested that we all remain outdoors as apparently our scent was as offensive to them as theirs was to us. Wet dog had nothing on the smell of the wolves.

After everything had been explained and our limited options explored, the Quileute's offered Charlie and me their sympathy for the "tragedy that had befallen us" and their reluctant thanks to the Cullens for taking me under their wing. The treaty was renegotiated to include me, though it was obvious they weren't happy with _another _vampire living permanently in the area, and a volatile newborn one at that. But Edward, Jasper, and Carlisle gave their assurances that I would not be left unsupervised and was no risk to the town or reservation.

It was humiliating, and I found it very difficult not to huff off in a sulk.

"Bella, sweetheart?" Edward gently lifted my chin when I wouldn't look him in the eye after the elders and wolves had departed. "We know that you don't need supervising. Your determination not to hurt anyone is astonishing, not to mention your remarkable talent. We just told them what they needed to hear, so they wouldn't worry."

Sighing, I let him comfort me, moving into the circle of his arms and resting my head against his chest...until my dad's harrumph reluctantly drove us apart.

Charlie took his parental supervision duties seriously though he was far more worried about me getting carried away with Edward than running off to slaughter half the town. Not that I blamed him, as there was some merit to _his _fears. But it wasn't just having the Quileute elders and wolf-pack thinking I needed babysitting that upset me; it was the knowledge of what I had to do next.

Sending the emails and making the calls, rerouted by Emmett through satellites and other high-tech methods that I failed to understand, to make it look like I was actually in New York wasn't a task I enjoyed. Pretending to be someone who would do such a truly awful thing to my own parents, no matter how _thoughtlessly_ it was supposed to have occurred, left a horrible taste in my mouth. But it worked, and after a brief flurry of interest that only lasted a few days, both the authorities and media let the story drop.

My one concern—a _big _one—that came out of this was the realization that vampires were as potentially computer literate and aware of world events as anyone else. I'd not thought of James, Victoria, or Laurent in those terms as they'd seemed so _otherworldly. _But it dawned on me with increasing horror that following my scent wasn't the only way that James could track me back to Forks.

"Maybe we should move _sooner _rather than later," I urged after explaining my concerns, but Alice insisted she didn't see my attackers coming after me..._yet. _They were still too busy trawling the oceans though, unfortunately, they'd found Victoria's arm fairly quickly, the ship I'd hidden it on having docked again before heading across the Pacific on its journey to China. It was only a matter of time before they would find the container ship where James' leg was hidden. Alice admitted that she did see flashes of them coming to Forks, eventually, James having already decided that he would get his revenge on me if it was the last thing he did.

"It will be," Edward growled at Alice's prediction. His fierce tone and feral expression would have been quite frightening if my definitely-mated-vampire side wasn't so darn aroused by it.

I might have said it was what I wanted, but keeping things light between Edward and me was a lot more difficult than I expected. Despite having known him for only a matter of days, if it hadn't been for the fact that my parents were around virtually all of the time—with Renee and Phil accepting the Cullens' offer to stay in the guest suite on the ground floor and Charlie coming over for at least a part of each day—I wasn't at all sure that I'd have still been a virgin by the end of the first week.

The realization shocked me, making me aware of how much being transformed into a vampire had changed me emotionally as well as physically. If I'd still been human and Edward and I had started dating after meeting at Forks High, something I considered unlikely regardless of Alice's visions to the contrary, I was sure we wouldn't have found it so difficult to resist each other. My being nervous, self-conscious, and feeling wholly inadequate to be with such an amazing guy, and his being terrified of hurting me, would have all played a part in our taking things slowly.

But I wasn't human, and he couldn't hurt me. My only fear was that our desire for each other would spin out of control despite my keeping my talent constantly activated to try and rein it in.

Jasper did what he could to help us, but he became quickly overwhelmed by the excess of our desire for one another and needed regular _breaks _with Alice.

"Just heading out for some alone time with Alice," he'd drawl when it all got too much for him. "I just need to reestablish my equilibrium."

Cringing, I'd wait for the blush that never came and try _not _to imagine what that entailed as it only made things worse for Edward and me.

Lust.

It wasn't something I'd thought much about before meeting Edward, but I was becoming extremely well acquainted with it now that I had the hottest boyfriend on the planet. Living in a house filled with three amorous vampire couples wasn't helping, either. Super powered hearing could be a pain.

"Are you okay?" Edward would ask when the tension between us unbearable, and I'd shrug, unwilling to admit that I was feeling frustrated and was fighting the temptation to throw myself at him…again.

It was a _good _thing that we were unable to spend all our time making out, I reminded myself. No matter how my new body responded to Edward's presence, and I was glad that we were taking things slow. Both our families made sure of that: his, at our request for assistance, and mine, because they were worried about me rushing headlong into an intense, physical relationship when they didn't think I'd recovered from my ordeal.

I wasn't sure my parents really understood the whole vampire-mating phenomenon, not that I blamed them. I was only just coming to terms with it myself. It was difficult to comprehend that the attraction I felt for Edward was never _ever_ going to wane. But I appreciated Charlie's and Renee's concern, and there was a definite upside to their interference. Being prevented from giving in to our physical desire for one another forced Edward and me to take time getting to know one another_. _It was something that he said he was determined to do even if his actions occasionally contradicted his intentions…

_~HIS~_

_**Hmmm…I wonder what she means?**_

_**Next chapter is only a shortie, but it's from Edward's perspective. I'm not sure he's finding the waiting any easier. ;)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_

_**PS: In my longer vamp story, Once Bitten, where Edward loses control and bites Bella the very first day, I explore the issues I've brushed over in this story in much greater detail: Bella's change; the cover up; her anger, grief over her lost life, newborn volatility, adjusting to becoming a vampire, and falling in love with Edward while fighting the draw she feels towards him in much greater detail. I also have a heap of fun with some tweaked talents, an enraged wolf-pack, avaricious Volturi, and Charlie's and Renee's unintentional discovery of their daughter's survival leading to some very unexpected outcomes. Since Hunted in Seattle is more of a quick flic, I won't be going into so much detail because I've done it all before...and I'm too eager to see these two get together! **_


	28. Restraint

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I dreamed about a really sexy, telepathic and telekinetic Alienward last night who can only communicate through body and sign language with a human Bella, the girl he rescues from slavers. Too weird?_**

**_Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for helping me with this last minute chapter…though I just added another 400 unbeta'ed words. Sorry! _**

**_This is an added in chapter, as I realized we wouldn't be hearing from Edward for a little while…and we can't have that!_**

**_Words: 1498_**

Chapter 28

Restraint

EPOV

"Favorite flowers?" I asked, my voice an unintentionally husky whisper as I ran my nose along the line of Bella's jaw and inhaled her intoxicating scent. Freesias…with a hint of strawberry.

"Flowers?" she breathed, her head falling back to give me greater access to the curve of her neck. We were sitting on the floor of my room, supposedly working on her history assignment now that she'd resumed her high school studies online.

"Hmmm…flowers," I murmured, caving to temptation and nuzzling just below her ear with my lips, a place I'd discovered drove her a little wild and that I should have left well alone.

"You mean like colors and petals and stuff?" she panted, one hand burrowing into my hair to hold me in place. "You want to buy me flowers?"

An image flashed into my mind of me standing on the porch of Chief Swan's house with a posy in one hand and a beribboned box of chocolates in the other. Dressed in a tan-colored suit with a high, starched collar, I reached to knock on the door, nervously rocking back and forth on my heels while waiting for it to be opened. Bella answered, wearing a long, flowing dress and her hair piled high on her head in a soft bun with curling tendrils framing her face.

It was a scene straight out of Courtship 101, circa early 1900s, and brought me instantly to my senses.

Groaning, I pulled away from Bella's delectable earlobe. Putting some space between us, I threw myself backward, smacking against the wall with a resounding thud.

"Everything okay up there?" Renee asked from where she was sitting discussing craft patterns with Esme in the living room. For all her supposedly forward thinking, Renee had turned out to be a surprisingly diligent chaperone.

Even though she knew Bella couldn't become pregnant, she was worried about her daughter rushing into a physical relationship with the first boy she'd ever dated. While Renee said that she understood there would never be anyone else for Bella but me, practically or by desire, she was struggling to adjust her protective maternal instincts to the new situation.

I understood. It _had_ only been a few days.

"Yeah…we're fine, Mom," Bella called, brushing her hair back from her face and blowing out a long breath. "I just dropped a book."

Sitting with my arms resting on my raised knees, I mouthed, "Sorry," not wanting to give Emmett any more ammunition. He was out in the back yard astonishing Phil with his baseball prowess, but I knew he'd be listening in and would pounce on any sign of weakness. His incessant teasing was driving me almost as crazy as the physical frustration I felt at having to restrain myself around Bella. Not being able to give in to my feelings for my mate was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.

I'd managed quite well all morning, bringing Bella's Spanish rapidly up to speed and thoroughly enjoying her erudite and perceptive analysis of the Shakespeare play she was working on for her literature assignment. But when she said she was sick of sitting at the desk and we'd moved to stretch out beside each other on the floor, her text books scattered around us, I couldn't seem to keep my eyes off her surprisingly long and very shapely jean-clad legs. Whilst never one to stare at a girl's backside, Bella's was a sight to behold: perfectly curved, the exact right size for my itching hands, and quite impossible for me to ignore.

"Like what you see?" She'd smirked, catching me checking her out for the third time in as many minutes.

"Indeed," I'd drawled, not meaning to imbue my tone with blatant sensuality but managing to do so none-the-less. Rolling onto her back, she'd looked up at me, all doe-eyed and innocent allure.

"How about now," she'd breathed, and I'd removed _innocent _from the equation, growling low in my chest and fighting the urge to pounce.

"Bella," I'd warned when she sat up, her back coming to rest against my raised knee as she positioned herself between my thighs.

"What?" She'd fluttered her eyelashes. "I'm just taking a break and scoping out my gorgeous new boyfriend. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not at all," I'd murmured, pulling her into my embrace and trying to remember why this was a bad idea…which had led to my asking her opinion regarding artistic preferences as a distracting tactic.

It was an effective strategy most of the time, giving us something else to focus on and enabling us to get to know one another in the process. We'd begun by sharing our life stories and then progressed to comparing and discussing all of our favorites: books, music, movies. But this time, after briefly discussing the merits of Impressionism compared to Surrealism, I'd asked Bella her favorite color. The way she'd ducked her head, looking up at me from beneath her luxurious lashes to whisper, "Amber," had been my undoing, and my lips had found their way to her smooth, creamy skin.

For someone who had prided themselves on their self-control for so many decades, I was turning out to be a dismal failure in the respectful boyfriend department.

"It's not your fault," Bella responded to my earlier apology. "I feel it too…even with my shield."

"I promised not to rush you." I shrugged disconsolately from where I sat with my back to the wall.

Despite the accelerated physical maturation of Bella's vampire body, which I knew would be creating almost overwhelmingly intense passions and desires—the same ones that I was feeling, and I wasn't a newborn—I was well aware that she was still adjusting to all the changes that had occurred in her life. As if becoming a vampire, with all that entailed, wasn't enough, she was faced with suddenly finding herself in a relationship for the first time in her life; one that was destined to grow stronger and last forever. I fully understood that the human aspect to her personality and character she was so valiantly determined to hold onto needed some time. I just wasn't sure how much longer _I_ could last.

I wanted to tell her how much I loved her so badly the words were like a physical ache in my chest. But it was too soon, and I didn't think she was ready to hear them. The declaration I'd made in front of her father had not been overly thought out on my part. I hadn't meant to shock her, and the last thing I wanted to do was put her under more pressure. Since then, the closest I'd come to expressing my feelings for her was when we'd shared our dreams and hopes for the future, Bella's barely formed and mine newly awakened...because of her.

Smiling shyly at the picture I'd created of our future together, painted in broad strokes so as not to appear like a fait accompli, she'd ducked her head and snuggled into my side. It was as physically intimate as we'd allowed ourselves to become before I'd lost control this morning when I was supposed to be assisting her with her studies and had ended up nuzzling her neck.

"I really want to kiss you right now," Bella murmured, inching toward me on her hands and knees.

"We mustn't," I whispered. "It's only been a short while, and your parents are still wary of me, not to mention overwhelmed by the situation. You need time to adjust and for us to get to know one another so that you feel like you've at least had some say in all of this. If we start kissing, I'm not sure I'll be able to control myself, and…"

"I know." She smiled, coming close enough to place a forefinger to my lips. "And I appreciate your understanding. I just wanted you to know that I really, _really _want to kiss you right now even though I understand why I can't…_not yet_._"_

Groaning, I wondered if I could take back all of my reasons for waiting and argue for the other side instead.

"Now how about I ramp up this shield of mine a notch, and you come help me with this essay on the Great Depression? You did live through it, after all," she teased, and my pout curled into a smile.

How could I resist such a sweet offer, even if it wasn't _quite _the one I was waiting for?

Within seconds I felt the soothing effects of Bella's shield helping me with my control, and I gladly assisted her with her project.

There was no rush. I'd waited a very long lifetime for Bella and was determined to show her the respect she deserved. But I couldn't deny that a part of me was counting the days until we neither needed her shield nor the exercise of self-restraint any longer.

_~HIS~_

**_Yep…I'm counting the days, too. _**

**_Do you think Edward's losing the battle, or will his Edwardian tendencies put a freeze on their progress? _**

**_xxx TLSue_**

**_PS: My favorite flowers are roses, but I love just about anything colorful with petals._**


	29. Ready

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I've made a good start on my first original fic, and my lovely editor likes it a lot. Yay!**_

_**Thanks for sharing all your favorite flowers. I had to google some of them and felt pretty silly when I would see the images and go, Oh...of course. I was planning to reply to every review this time, but Edward's needs took precedence, I'm afraid. He's been urging me to write a lemon from his perspective because Temptressella has pushed him to his limits. ;)**_

_**Thanks to my wonderful betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for betaing this chapter. I didn't even add anything in this time!**_

_**Words: 1868**_

Chapter 28

Ready

BPOV

"Bella, sweetie, do you think I can drag you away from this handsome young man...long enough for us to have a mother-daughter chat in private before I leave?" Renee asked, poking her head in the door of Edward's room. He was helping me study calculus, of all things, a much easier task with my improved vampire cognition and Edward's expert tutoring.

"Sure, Mom." I jumped up, leaving Edward and my books sprawled on the floor.

Three weeks had passed since my abduction, and life was taking on a degree of normality...for a vampire. Phil had returned to his spring training camp a few days after the announcement was made that I was alive and living in New York, and Charlie had gone back to work a week later after taking some leave. We spoke every day on the phone, and he came over for dinner a few nights a week. It gave Esme and me an opportunity to use the Cullens' gourmet kitchen and bond over a shared love of cooking, not that either of us could eat the food we prepared. Renee had stayed on for a bit longer, unwilling to leave until she was sure I was going to be okay. She was looking forward to spending time traveling with Phil now that I was settled, my purpose for coming to Forks in the first place. Charlie had offered to drive her to the airport in Seattle, her flight leaving later that afternoon.

We wandered out to the back porch and took our seats on a matching pair of lounge chairs, eager to soak up the sun that had decided to make a rare appearance and trying _not _to become distracted by my sparkling skin. Being outside gave us a semblance of privacy, though, of course, we'd have to move much further away from the house not to be overheard by the vampires inside.

"You're happy," Renee stated, laying on her side to face me. "You survived a traumatic experience with so much courage, I'm in awe of you; you're adjusting well to a situation I can still barely comprehend; you have a home here with some truly wonderful people who have promised to care for you as one of their own, and the absolute adoration of a lovely young man."

"But you're still worried about leaving me," I finished for her, and she nodded, tears flooding her eyes. "Don't be," I whispered, reaching to gently stroke her arm. I still had to keep my shield at least partially activated when my parents were around to dull the lure of their scents, and I dared not hug them for fear of accidentally squeezing too hard and hurting them. But I was much more comfortable around them than any of the Cullens could have imagined being around humans during their first months as a vampire.

"I _am _fine," I declared for the both of us. "And it's not like we can't see each other often. I'll call or email you every day...or _most _every day," I admitted a little more honestly. I was almost eighteen, after all. "I was coming to live in Forks anyway, so that part isn't all that different."

We both laughed at that, but then Renee sighed and ran a hand through her hair in a familiar gesture; Edward did it all the time, and so did I occasionally.

"You know what I'm going to say next, don't you?" she murmured, and I shrugged noncommittally. "It's about you and Edward."

I stilled and knew that Edward would be listening intently.

"Baby, this is the part where I'd normally give you the 'take it slow, be safe, don't rush into anything because you're still young' talk that I've been working on since you were ten years old." We both smirked, and then Renee sighed again, shaking her head. "But none of it applies...not that most of it would have anyway. You're not _me,_ and I get that. You're much more like your father...mature before your time, sure of what you want. I should have been more worried about you ending up falling for someone flighty like I was and having your heart broken, but it's obvious that that young man of yours gives new meaning to the word _steadfast._"

Again, we shared a chuckle.

"Bella, sweetheart, just be happy...that's all I want. And if Edward makes you happy, as he clearly does, then I want you to know you have my blessing to do...to _be..._whatever you need."

"Thanks, Mom," I murmured past the lump in my throat, relieved when she initiated a careful hug.

"Just invite me to the wedding?" she whispered into my ear, and I heard several crashing noises from inside the house.

I froze and wanted to tell her not to be ridiculous, that Edward and I were nowhere near making that sort of decision. We hadn't even talked about how we felt about each other _aside _from the fact that we were supposedly soul mates—something that seemed almost _separate_ from the two of us, an intrinsic part of our instinctual vampire natures. But I hesitated.

I wasn't sure how Edward would react to the vehement denial that hovered on my lips, but while I might not be ready to _marry_ him, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings. Born in a very different time from me, he had an old-fashioned way of looking at things which I imagined encompassed his views on how relationships were supposed to progress.

"Wedding?" I whispered, drawing back from Renee's embrace. "I thought you'd be the _last _person to encourage me to head down that path."

"Well..." Renee shrugged, her expression rueful. "Everything is different now. You're not going to age, and you and Edward aren't going to change your minds about the way you feel about each other. In the overall scheme of things, marriage doesn't seem like such a crazy idea."

"I realize that, technically, I'm not going to get any older. But do you think we could at least wait until after my eighteenth birthday to discuss weddings?" I suggested, ignoring Alice's squeals of delight though I couldn't help wondering what the heck she'd just seen. I hadn't _decided _anything...had I?

"Sounds like a plan," Charlie surprised me by agreeing, that and the fact that I hadn't registered his approach. I was too focused on any noise or reaction coming from Edward's room.

"Not you too, Dad?" I groaned, standing and letting him approach and hug me as had become our practice. "Edward and I have only just started dating. It's not like we've even _talked _about getting married_,_" I hissed.

"But it's inevitable, Bells," Charlie harrumphed, before giving me a reluctant smile. "Though I like the idea of you waiting until after your birthday, at least," he admitted, his cheeks suddenly firing with color. "I agree with your mother about the rest. We _both _want you to know that you have our blessing to make the most of this new life of yours, whatever that entails. Don't worry about upsetting or disappointing us because that's just not possible. We love you and are so proud of you, Bells, and just want you to be happy. That's all I wanted to say," he finished in a rush, while I stared stunned.

"So, you approve of Edward?" I asked tentatively.

Charlie's shrug was a little half-hearted, but he reluctantly nodded when Renee elbowed him in the side.

"Yeah...I approve. He's obviously got your best interests at heart. Besides...we both know how stubborn you can be once you've made up your mind."

"Thanks, Dad," I muttered, pleased and embarrassed in equal measures.

Edward joined me as soon as we went back inside the house, his arm circling my waist and his lips finding one of their favorite places...my forehead. I smiled up at him, wary of his reaction to what he'd overheard.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Of course," he murmured, his expression intense but unreadable.

Before long, it was time for my parents to leave. Renee hugged Edward, tears sparkling in her eyes once more.

"Take care of my little girl," she directed him.

"I will," he promised, not for the first time.

Then Charlie shook his hand, looking him in the eye and repeating Renee's words but with a minor addition.

"I _know _you'll take care of my little girl, Edward," he declared, his voice gruff. "Because while you might be an impervious, immortal being, _I've_ got a can of gasoline and a blowtorch with your name on it if you don't."

"_Dad!_" I hissed, ignoring the sound of Emmett's booming laughter and focusing on Edward's shocked expression.

"You can count on me, sir," Edward responded after swallowing hard. "I won't let either of you down."

Though sad to see them go, I breathed a sigh of relief when Charlie's truck disappeared down the tree-lined driveway.

"You want to get out of here for a while?" Edward turned to me, ignoring his brothers' teasing about his potential father-in-law being one scary dude...for a human.

"Yes, please," I murmured, feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Here, take this with you," Alice ordered, blurring to Edward's side and slipping a larger than usual backpack over his shoulder.

"It's not that long since I hunted," I reminded her, puzzled. My control over my thirst had improved to the point where I was managing to stretch out the need to hunt to every second day. I hadn't needed a new shirt or change of clothes the last few times, so I wasn't sure why we needed the bag.

"Trust me and have fun," Alice replied brightly. "And don't hurry back. I foresee no dramas on the home or forest front for at _least_ the next few days."

_Next few days!_

Stunned, I let Edward drag me with him out the door. Jasper and Alice had been coming with us when I needed to hunt, so Jasper could help me maintain control. But this time it was just the two of us...and no one followed.

"Edward?" I murmured a little uncertainly as we leaped across the river together and ran into the forest.

"Don't worry," he assured me, squeezing my hand. "I just needed to get away from everyone, and I thought you'd appreciate the chance to talk in private. Ignore Alice. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do, or anything at all for that matter...only what you feel ready for." He shrugged, his expression tentative as we slowed to a halt, deep in the forest and far from the prying ears of his family.

_Ready?_

My parents had just given me their blessing to move on with my strange, new life. I knew they still felt responsible for me, and it said a great deal that they felt comfortable leaving me with the Cullens...not that they had much choice in the matter. Essentially, it meant they'd given their tacit approval for Edward and me to be together.

Not marriage—at my age that was ridiculous...wasn't it?—but the freedom to take our relationship to the next level?

Hell, yes, I was ready!

_~HIS~_

_**So. Am. I.**_

_**Anyone have a scarier father-in-law than Charlie? I've had three mother-in-laws, which has been interesting.  
**_

_**Thanks for reading...and still reviewing. You guys are awesome. **_

_**xxx TLSue**_

_**PS: I'm glad you liked the Alienward idea. The ideas are flowing, though I'm not sure when I'll get to writing him. :( **_


	30. Attack

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. _**

**_Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for all their support. Another chapter with minimal post beta meddling…I think._**

**_I loved all the mother-in-law stories. Thanks for the chuckles…and occasional shudders. It might be a while until I get around to my Alienward story as I have promised to write some outtakes for my completed stories. But_****_ DutchGirl01 recommended Written in the Stars by Lissa Bryan, and I've really enjoyed it. It's a wonderful 'Alienward' story told on an epic scale. Let Lissa know I sent you. :)_**

**_Words: 2046_**

Chapter 29

Attack

BPOV

"So, Bella, what would you like to do first?" Edward asked, standing with his hand in mine beneath a canopy of green. The two of us were truly alone for the first time, far from our families. "I know a lovely place where we can just sit and talk, or you might prefer to hunt first. Emmett spotted a mountain lion not far from here, and I can't wait for you to experience for yourself how good they taste. Or we could go for a run, just the two of us, or..."

I shushed him with a finger to his lips, needing a moment to consider what I wanted. One of the things I'd become quite adept at over the previous two weeks was keeping my talent activated without having to specifically focus. I'd learned how to establish an almost subliminal thought pattern or _self talk_ as Carlisle called it, with _I will not lose control and hurt a human _and _I will not lose control and attack Edward_ both running on a permanent loop in the back of my mind. It seemed that another vampire attribute was exceptional multi-tasking skills.

I didn't want to have my feelings for Edward constrained any longer. But as much as I was physically ready to let things progress naturally without vampire-talent interference, Edward was right...we needed to talk. A hunt first sounded perfect. Whether it was all the emotion I'd expended saying goodbye to Renee, the stress of my parents' surprising declarations, or just a newborn thing...my thirst was suddenly raging.

"Mountain lion sounds intriguing." I shrugged, biting my lip, and Edward's eyes darkened, a very predatory smile curling his lips.

"You're going to love it," he growled, his voice low and husky. And I second-guessed my decision not to pin him to the nearest tree and kiss him senseless. But then he tugged on my hand, and together we tore through the forest before climbing high into the trees to approach the wild cat from downwind.

A beautiful creature, the similarities between its sleek form and feline movements and the man crouched beside me were unmistakable, and I felt a twinge of regret that we were going to kill it.

"I don't hunt them too often," Edward murmured in my ear, sensing my hesitation. "And only the older, lone males."

"If you're sure?" I dragged my eyes from the big cat prowling along the branches below us and met Edward's gaze. "We could just go find some deer," I offered tentatively. _Not _hunting was no longer an option now that we'd begun, the venom pooling in my mouth.

"It's a special occasion; something I've been looking forward to for days," Edward whispered, leaning close to nuzzle his lips along my throat to soothe the aching burn. "Our first hunt together...alone."

How could I resist such an invitation?

"Come on," he dared me, deliberately startling the cat to flight to make the hunt more exciting. Taking off through the trees, I followed after him in pursuit of the predator who had unexpectedly become prey to two far more dangerous creatures.

The hunter that was now an intrinsic part of me exhilarated in the chase, flying through the trees and across the forest floor in pursuit of the panicked animal. The woman that I was becoming, emerging from the chrysalis of the girl I'd been before that night in Seattle, focused more on Edward. Captivated by his gracefully aggressive form, I watched the way his muscles stretched and contracted as he ran and leaped. Easily capturing our prey, he brought him to me.

"Bella?" he queried, walking slowly toward me with the still-spitting, clawing mountain lion in his arms.

I wasn't behaving at all like a typical newborn. I knew that. My thirst raged—the desire to wrest the beast from Edward's arms, sink my teeth into its neck and drink the spicy- scented blood that flowed in its veins, incredibly strong. But the desire I felt for this strange, beautiful man raged stronger.

"Let's drink together," I murmured, kneeling opposite Edward when he quickly snapped the cat's neck and placed it on the ground between us.

He nodded, his eyes fixed with mine. Lowering our heads, we sank our teeth into the animal's jugular, hissing as we drew the hot, salty, spicy blood into our mouths. Sucking and swallowing in rhythm with Edward, I moaned as my blood lust was slowly assuaged, an altogether different sort of lust slowly overtaking it.

Letting the drained carcass fall to the ground between us, we stood and stared at one another...frozen...waiting...anticipating our next move. Would we go to the place he'd mentioned and talk as I knew we should, there being so many things we needed to discuss and decide? Or would I allow the faltering mental construct that was all that stood between us and our true feelings fall?

Lust defeated pragmatism. The power-infused warning that had played repetitiously in my mind for the previous days and weeks—limiting us to the occasional stolen kiss and chaste embrace even more effectively than our host of chaperons—fell silent. The resultant surge of desire that flowed through me was astonishing, hitting Edward just as hard if his reaction was anything to go by. His eyes instantly darkened to black, making me realize just how much raw emotion my talent had been keeping at bay.

"Edward," I cried, leaping across our prey to tackle and roll with him on the forest floor. "I need you," I pleaded, my mouth finding his in a kiss that was almost punishing in its intensity.

"I know, baby, I know. I need you, too," he groaned against my mouth, tongues stroking and limbs entwining in an explosion of sensation and desire.

We came to rest with his body stretched full length on top of mine, lying on a bed of moss and leaves. With our vampire senses, the fact that we were both still clothed in shorts and tee shirts was almost an irrelevance, the feel of every curve and plane and contour touching and pressed against each other _almost _the same as if we'd been naked.

_Being naked...with Edward._

The thought was overpowering, and a shudder of pure pleasure ran through me, nearly as intense as when I'd orgasmed the very first time we'd kissed.

Moaning, I tried not to rip my fingers through Edward's shirt, leaving his beautiful back bare to my touch.

Whimpering, I attempted to restrain myself from wrapping my legs around his waist and writhing beneath him with complete abandon when he rocked against me, his hips nestled in the cradle of my thighs.

Panting, I foughtto regain control over my passion-swamped senses, heightened beyond reason by the feel of his body moving over mine, his lips and tongue and teeth teasing my eager flesh.

And failed on all counts.

I...just...wanted...Edward...so...badly!

The pressure continued to build, our kisses and caresses becoming even more frantic with desire and need and sheer, utter wanting.

Then he deliberately rubbed against me. His equally aroused body stroked mine intimately, and I lost it completely, screaming loud enough to set every bird in the vicinity to flight. The climax that tore through my body was completely outside of my control and even more intense than the first time I'd experienced it in Edward's arms. Crying out as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through me, I held him tightly against me. Reveling in his groans and shudders, I hoped they meant I wasn't the only one overwhelmed by ecstasy.

When our bodies finally stilled, the pulsing pleasure occasionally rippling through me and eliciting softer, quieter moans, I opened my eyes to find Edward gazing at me. His expression was inscrutable and intense.

"What are you thinking?" I whispered, wondering if he would be angry with me for de-activating my talent without talking to him about it first. Honestly, I hadn't expected such an immediate and overwhelming response.

Stroking my hair back from my forehead, he trailed his fingers down my cheek and along my jaw.

"I'm thinking that I should be appalled at my complete and utter lack of self-control. But I'm finding it difficult to summon the remorse required to castigate myself properly as I am currently so blissfully happy."

Only Edward could sound like a character out of an Austen novel at a time like this, I mused, a smile curving my lips.

"Me, too," I answered with far less eloquence but the sentiment equally heartfelt.

"You do realize that I blame you," he added, and I gasped. But before the shock and hurt his words triggered could show on my face, he continued. "As you are completely and utterly irresistible."

"Irresistible?" I breathed, my momentary anguish replaced with a deep, warm glow.

"Yes," he breathed, leaning down to gently kiss my lips, caressing my mouth with tender touches between his words. "Irresistible...adorable...beautiful...and desire incarnate."

"Oh," I murmured against his glorious lips. "Well that's all right then, though you do realize that we haven't even gotten to second base. We keep losing control as soon as we kiss and then...well..._you know._"

"Oh, I _know._" Edward groaned the words, his hand slipping beneath my shirt. His fingers trailed a sensual path from my hip to my waist, finally coming to rest on my ribs, his thumb brushing the edge of the bra covering my instantly aching breast.

"Second base?" he murmured.

I arched beneath him at the sultry timbre of his words. "Oh, yes please," I begged and he lifted his body from mine just far enough to slip his hand between us and gently cup my breast.

We moaned in unison, and a shudder rippled through me at the exquisite sensation of his palm gently squeezing and his fingers softly stroking the bare flesh just above the edge of my bra. Edward's lower body thrust against mine, the movement seemingly automatic. We both moaned at the feel of his still-hardened length pressing against me. Our breath coming in rapid pants, Edward dropped his head to rest his forehead against mine.

"We need to stop," he gasped. "_I _need to stop."

"You do?" I whimpered in complaint, having effectively banished all sense of reason and restraint and with no desire whatsoever to retrieve them.

"Yes, we _both _do," Edward insisted, slowly withdrawing his hand from beneath my shirt and lifting his body as if to move away.

Growling, I hugged him to me for a moment before reluctantly letting go.

"I suppose there are things we need to talk about before we..._you know..._again," I admitted disconsolately.

Edward chuckled, eliciting a wry smile from my pouting lips before slowly shaking his head. Groaning, he closed his eyes with what looked like embarrassment.

"What?" I ran my fingers along the chiseled line of his jaw.

He reluctantly met my gaze. "I can't believe that I lostcontrol so completely, _again. _Would you excuse me for just one moment while I go and, er..._change?_"

"Oh, sure," I mumbled, suddenly understanding the source of his discomfort.

Disappearing from atop my body, leaving me feeling instantly bereft, he was back before I'd stood to my feet. The back pack was slung over his shoulder and he wore a sheepish look on his face.

"Hey," I murmured, reaching out to entwine his fingers with mine. Our joint gasp upon contact morphed into shared sighs at the comfort of our connection. "Don't be embarrassed," I pleaded quietly and then rolled my eyes. "_I'm_ the one who threw myself at you and tore another of your shirts to shreds."

"Yes, but you're a newbo..." The descriptor that Edward had quickly realized was not one I was comfortable with cut off at my raised brow. "What I mean to say is that you're still very new to this way of life. Your self-control is remarkable, but it's to be expected that you will have lapses. I've been a vampire for eighty-seven years..."

"But you're just as new to being in a relationship as I am," I interjected, reaching up to softly kiss his cheek. "Let's not spoil what we shared by beating ourselves up over it," I urged. "But I think you're right, and it's time we had a talk."

_~HIS~_

**_Oh to be a butterfly on a nearby flower listening in to that conversation. That's right…we can be! _**

**_xx TLSue_**


	31. The Talk

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. That's all I've got tonight at the end of a loooong day at work. Sigh.**_

_**Thanks to my awesome betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro for betaing this not so quick fic. And thanks to Content1 for her inspiring words, encouraging me that I'm doing okay when I've been feeling like my writing mojo had abandoned me. Not sure what I'd do without you guys.**_

_**Special thanks to 2old4fanfic for reviewing every chapter and giving my Regency Romance, A Forbidden Love, its 11 000th review and Hunted in Seattle its 2000th review both in the same week. Yay!**_

_**Words: 2814**_

Chapter 31

The Talk

EPOV

In some ways I remained emotionally as well as physically frozen at the age I'd been when Carlisle changed me. In other ways, I felt like an old man who'd been masquerading as a teenager for decades...though maybe _old _was the wrong term. Emotionless wasn't quite right either, as Jasper would attest to the fact that I emoted as much as any other member of our family. My emotions had just tended toward the melancholy if not downright bitter much of the time.

Not anymore.

Since Bella had come into my life, I felt anything but sad, old, or bitter. Gauche, flustered, perpetually and at times excruciatingly aroused, grateful, and overwhelmed were all apt descriptions of my new state of being. Oh, and smitten, enamored, infatuated, and completely, utterly, gloriously in love for the first time in my long and previously lonely existence.

If I had still been human, I suspected that my face would ache from smiling, though I did my best to keep my "goofy grin," as Emmett described it, from disconcerting my young and easily embarrassed beloved. There were times when Bella's grief over her losses, confusion at the myriad of adjustments she was being forced to make, and fear of the future caused me pain and outrage on her behalf, and the last thing I felt like doing was smiling. While my fury at the monsters who'd subjected her to the brutal ordeal of her abduction, torture, and change had not dimmed in the slightest, I could not deny the underlying happiness I felt at having her in my life. It made sense, therefore, that my joy would be tinged with guilt, as my enormous good fortune at having finally found my beautiful, beguiling, bedazzling mate came at the cost of her precious human life.

While I could not alter what had been done to her, I vowed to do everything within my power to ensure that her future was filled with happiness and the purpose she clearly desired. But first, we needed to talk and decide together what shape our immediate future should take.

"Oh, Edward. This is lovely," Bella murmured, her smile lighting up her face as she admired the meadow from where we stood amongst the trees at its edge. We'd taken our time getting there, stopping to wash up in a fast-flowing creek after the hunt and our second unexpected but equally satisfying episode of indulging our desire for one another.

I should have felt guilty for my lack of control, or chagrined at the very least. The old Edward would have, my lack of shame extraordinarily out of character. I could only assume that the bliss-inducing love that now permeated every crystalline cell in my being had somehow overwhelmed or camouflaged it.

"There'll be a lot more flowers later in the spring," I responded, shaking off my bemusement and refusing to allow my latent melancholy to resurface and spoil our time alone. Unable to resist the urge, I wrapped my arm around Bella's waist and pulled her close to my side. She came willingly, smiling up at me so that I lost myself once more in the moment. Her eyes darkened, and I lowered my head intent on kissing her again, but she averted her lips at the last second so that I grazed her cheek.

"Not again," she breathed, bringing a hand up to press against my chest so that I was forced to take a step back. "Not until we've talked."

"Agreed." I nodded solemnly, though the beast within me roared in frustration at the delay but also satisfaction at the knowledge that there would, indeed, be a next time. Of course, I had no idea when that time would be, as it all depended on the outcome of our discussion and the important decisions that needed to be made.

"Come," I urged, squeezing the hand she'd slipped back into mine as soon as our connection was broken. "Let's go find a place to sit."

Once we'd reached the middle of the verdant though sparsely flowered carpet, I shrugged the backpack off my shoulder and reached inside for the picnic blanket I'd spotted earlier. Neither Bella nor I would have been bothered by the rough ground, poking twigs or pebbles registering but of no concern to our vampire senses. But one of the things that made my family and me different from the nomadic members of our kind was the care we took to act and enjoy the niceties of life. It made us appear, and feel,a little more human.

After lounging back on the blanket, Bella and I spoke desultorily for a few moments about the meadow, how I'd found it, the names of the flowers and trees.

"So," she murmured after we'd both fallen silent. "You said we need to talk, but where do we start?"

"I was thinking about what your parents said," I began, and Bella squirmed uncomfortably. "It's okay," I quickly reassured her. "I just want you to know that there's no pressure. I'm not assuming or expecting anything."

She stared at our joined hands for a moment, and her eyes when she finally looked up at me were filled with as many conflicting emotions as I imagined warred in mine: wariness, hope, desire.

"I keep thinking about what Charlie said when he first found out that you and I were a couple_," _she began, her tone hesitant. "I _really _am only still seventeen, and I'm not sure that I'm ready for..."

"I know, Bella. I do," I interjected, sitting up in my eagerness to convince her of my understanding. "That's why there's no rush to do _anything _that you don't want to or aren't comfortable with. It might seem like we don't have much say in the matter considering that we've gotten completely carried away both times we've allowed ourselves the slightest freedom. But we can manage things if you utilize your talent, and I promise I can show more restraint. I'm normally very controlled; ask anyone in my family. I've just been taken by surprise, but I won't let it happen again..."

Raising a hand, Bella signaled me to stop.

"What I was _going _to say..." She eyed me pointedly but with humor. "...is that I don't think I'm quite ready for marriage—we've only been dating for a couple of weeks—but I don't want to keep using my talent to suppress how I feel about you."

Ducking her head, she let her hair fall like a curtain around her, hiding behind it and letting me know just how difficult it was for her to share her desires so openly with me. Without a doubt, she'd be blushing if she was still human, and I couldn't help but admire her courage.

Alice had warned me that Bella's world view was very different from mine, shaped as it was by the era she'd been born into and her unique upbringing. So I was at least somewhat prepared for this eventuality. Under different circumstances, I would have asked Alice not to show me what was going to happen, my preference being to let things develop at a natural pace between Bella and me. But what was natural for a couple of relatively mature and sensitive seventeen-year-olds, in her time or mine, was a far cry from what was natural for a couple of newly mated vampires. If it hadn't been for Bella's talent, events would have proceeded far more quickly between us than they already had.

"I've upset you, haven't I?" Bella surprised me by saying, and I brushed back her hair to capture her shy gaze. "You think I'm _brazen _or something," she rolled her eyes at the word, "because girls from your time wouldn't act the way I have or talk about having sex before they were married."

"No, Bella, you haven't upset me at all, and I don't think that," I murmured, lifting her chin and leaning in to brush a kiss across her lips. "I think you're perfect just the way you are."

Sighing, I pulled her closer so that she was nestled in the vee of my raised knees.

"If we were both human and living in my time, things would follow a very proscribed pattern," I acknowledged. "I'd ask your father's permission to court you—permission that I do believe he has granted, by the way," I added dryly, eliciting a delightful giggle from her lips. I loved Bella's laugh so much that every time it occurred I vowed to inspire it more often and usually became entirely distracted from my original purpose. Shaking my head, I refocused my thoughts. "Then we'd endure a highly chaperoned courtship and engagement, sneaking a few chaste kisses if the opportunity arose but nothing more before the wedding."

"Times have changed." Bella shrugged wanly. "Unless young people have some sort of religious belief about not sleeping together before they get married, it's not usually an issue. Not that I'm advocating random hook-ups," she added, her eyes widening with concern. "I wasn't that sort of girl when I was human. I mean, I've never done anything before...anything like you and I have. I'd never even had a boyfriend or kissed or..."

It was my turn to place a finger gently to her lips.

"I know." I smiled reassuringly. Bella's experience, or lack thereof, was as obvious as the sweet innocence that cloaked her like a mantle. We'd talked about her past in detail to help cement her memories, and she'd never even hinted at having liked or been in a relationship with a human boy. The thought reminded me of something very important that I was skipping over, a significant event for human or vampire alike.

"Before we go any further, I just want to say something very important, something that I promise won't change one iota regardless of what we decide here today." Kneeling before her, I took both her hands in mine and waited until her gaze was fixed upon me.

"I love you," I murmured softly but with absolute sincerity, "with all my heart, mind, and the soul you've convinced me I must possess, for no one as beautiful as you—inside and out—could ever be accused of being soulless. You were right. I was a love-struck fool from the first moment I laid eyes upon you, earlier if you take into account the way I felt about you after seeing Alice's visions. Yes, we're mated, connected and dependent on one another for all time. I believe that unequivocally. But, Bella, I would have loved you anyway, however or whenever we'd met."

"Oh, Edward." She blinked rapidly against the tears that made her eyes glisten but could not fall. "I feel the same," she whispered. "I love you, too, and I know I would have fallen in love with you if we'd met when I was still human...crazy as that sounds."

We shared a smile and then a kiss that we struggled to keep chaste, succeeding only because we both knew there were matters that had to be resolved before we could take things any further.

"So, what now?" she asked, her brow furrowing. "I suppose you'll want to get married before..." She dropped her gaze, her shoulders hunching, and I sighed. It was hardly the response I wanted from my bride-to-be at the prospect of our nuptials. Drawing her into my embrace, I did my best to imbue it with all the love and longing I felt in my heart, only sitting back when I felt the tension ease from her body.

"This is challenging for me," I admitted, and she flinched at my honesty. Stroking her hair back from her face, I hoped to soothe her fears with my words.

"If things were different, I could imagine sticking to my Edwardian sensibilities with self-righteous fervor and insisting we wait for marriage before pursuing a physical relationship. I may even have used our desire for one another..._your _desire for me...as a bargaining tool to manipulate the situation to get what I wanted." Bella sighed heavily at my words, and I quickly continued. "_But _I have no intention of doing so.

"You didn't choose this life. You were brutally forced into a situation that you've handled with incredible grace and wisdom despite your youth, and I'm not about to take away any more of your freedoms or ability to choose. I'll follow your lead in this, Bella. If you want to wait, then I'll show restraint—though you would need to reactivate your talent to make that remotely feasible. I don't think we can rely on Jasper's help for much longer, and I've already shown that my self-control is woefully lacking where you are concerned." Bella smiled smugly at my words, while my own smile was far more rueful. "But if you don't want to wait, I understand completely. I'll be honest, though, and say that an indication that you might be receptive to my proposal at some time in the future would be greatly appreciated."

Bella stared at me, unblinking, and I waited with bated breath for her decision. While a part of me would have undeniably preferred we married first..._immediately..._so that we could begin our legitimate honeymoon, Alice had forewarned me that was unlikely to be the case. She'd shown me glimpses of several scenarios, though which one would actually occur was dependent on the decision that Bella was currently contemplating.

Of one thing she'd been certain; the outcome if I took a harsh or dictatorial stand would not be the best for Bella. Her feelings for me were every bit as strong as mine for her, but if I chose to use them to gain an advantage, to dominate or manipulate her to my will, I'd be tainting something precious and pure. The last thing I wanted was to hurt or bully Bella in such a reprehensible manner, especially after everything she'd already been through.

After licking her lips in that way that drove me a little wild inside, she took a deep breath and murmured. "It must seem crazy to you that I'm not ready to get married when I know that we're going to be together forever."

"It's not crazy," I assured her. "Your beliefs and values have carried over from your human life and become integrated into your vampire nature. You wouldn't have been contemplating getting married at your age if you were still human and we'd just started dating."

"Of course not, though I imagine I'd have had at least a _little _more self-control," she muttered with obvious annoyance. "But _everything _about being a vampire is different. I don't want to wait to make love, Edward; certainly not for years until I'm mature enough to feel like getting married isn't a completely ridiculous thing to do...not that I think either of us could last that long. I suppose we could try and wait until my birthday like my folks suggested." She shrugged, her tone and expression doubtful. "At least then the first time we signed the papers, it would be legal...sort of. But that's five months away, and if I'm honest, I don't think I can wait that long, either."

Hiding the twinge I felt at her obvious reluctance and somewhat disparaging views on matrimony, I focused on the desires she'd expressed, desires I shared wholeheartedly.

"I don't want to wait, either," I admitted. "I'm not sure that I could, even with Jasper's help and your talent at work."

"You don't hate me because I'm not ready to get married straight away? You won't end up thinking badly of me if we..." Her words trailed away.

"Never," I declared emphatically. "I love you. Nothing will ever change that. But if you could give me the assurance that you will at least consider our getting married one day, when you're ready, I would be grateful...and I won't mention it again."

"Of _course, _I'll consider it," she responded, rising up on her knees to bring her body close to mine, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders. "I love you, Edward, and as soon as I'm ready I'll let you know. You can bring me back to this beautiful meadow and propose...and I promise, I'll say yes."

"I look forward to it," I whispered against her lips before catching them in a searing kiss. Putting those particular plans on hold, I concentrated on what we were both more than ready to share. Lowering Bella to the blanket, my intentions were clear, intentions that she welcomed with open arms as I showed her how very much I loved her in a manner as old as time but wonderfully new to the two of us.

_~HIS~_

_**I know...I know... Talk. Talk. Talk. But that's the last of it for a while. We're ready. They're ready. Sweet lemon alert ahead. ;)**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	32. First Time

**_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I've finished writing this story and all the chapters are off being betaed. I'll post as quickly as I can. :D_**

**_Thanks to my lovely betas, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, who continue to beta for me despite both of them being inundated with real life workloads that would have me curled up in a corner somewhere waving a white flag._**

**_Thanks to everyone who has continued to read, review and support this little tale. _**

**_Words: 2052_**

Chapter 32

First Time

BPOV

Smiling softly, Edward lowered us down upon the blanket. He gently stroked my face, his forefinger running down my cheek and along the line of my jaw, sending a tingle all the way through me. The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know_._

In that perfect moment, my apprehension vanished. I'd expected to feel afraid, reticent, confused, unsure...and I had felt all those things. We'd only known each other for a short space of time, but it felt like so much longer than the actual number of days. Since that night in the alley, it felt like my life had been on fast forward. I'd packed a lifetime's worth of experiences—good, bad, terrifying, amazing—into each twenty-four hour day. The way my mind worked now meant I remembered all of it, every tiny detail of every single moment. It made the events feel even _more _significant than they already were. Meeting Edward, coming to know him, discovering that he was the best friend I'd longed for but never dreamed of finding, was the best thing that had ever happened to me...right in the middle of the very worst_. _

"Are you sure about this?" he whispered, and I smiled.

"I've never been more sure," I told him, "or more terrified."

His eyes widened, and I felt his muscles tense as if he might be about to pull away.

"It's okay. I love you," I quickly assured him, holding him to me so that he couldn't escape. "I want you, and the reasons to wait just aren't..._tenable._"

My using a word from his vocabulary made us both smile.

"We _could_ wait." He sounded uncertain, his eyebrows quirking in that way that made me want to smooth his brow with one hand and put the other over my stomach to settle the butterflies.

"No, we couldn't," I contradicted. "Maybe if we were both human…or just me." I grimaced at the admission of his superior self-control—not that he'd done any better than I had a little earlier, I noted smugly.

"But if you're afraid?"

I shook my head. "Not of you...not of _us."_

"Then what?"

Shyly shrugging one shoulder, I admitted, "The unknown? Of not knowing what to do?"

I didn't realize I was biting on my lower lip until he released it from between my teeth with his thumb and stroked it softly.

"We'll learn together." It was the perfect thing to say, and I felt some of the tension leave my body.

While I was sure he knew everything there was _to_ know about the topic—his mind-reading both a blessing and a curse—I appreciated his attempt to put the knowledge aside and set us on an equal footing. This was new to both of us.

"But only if you're sure," he added, his nervousness as palpable as mine.

Laying with Edward in his lovely meadow, with a soft gray blanket of cloud cocooning us in our own private world, I told him again that I was ready...and that I loved him.

"My heart, beating or not beating, is yours," I declared and watched him melt, his eyes turning soft and liquid.

Taking my hand, he placed it over his heart, his expression breathtakingly beautiful.

"Myheart, my mind, my body, and my _soul_ are yours," he vowed, and I knew how much those words meant to him.

"As mine are yours," I vowed.

"Forever," we said together, unscripted and yet perfectly timed.

It was enough for now, the giving of ourselves and our futures to one another.

I'd learned so much in the previous few weeks about what it meant to be a mated vampire. The loving couples that made up Edward's extraordinary family showed by example what it meant to be _true_ soul mates. Their actions, example, and unconditional friendship had helped to erase the hurt and harm done by my perverted captors. I didn't want to think about James, Victoria, and Laurent in Edward's and my place and especially not during this special time. But I couldn't help contrasting the cruelty and selfishness that marred their bonds with the love, compassion, and caring I'd found with my true mate. Edward had shown me what love between a boy and a girl..._a man and a woman_...was supposed to look like.

"I love you," he whispered, echoing my thoughts as he leaned down to brush his lips over mine.

"I'm _in _love with you," he breathed, kissing along my jaw, one hand stroking my hair while the other gently mapped the curve of my waist and hip.

"I will _always _love you," he vowed, nuzzling the sensitive place just below my ear that sent tingly shivers down my spine.

"I love every single thing about you," he declared, making his slow, sensual way back to my mouth.

My lips curved into a smile, a giggle lurking just beneath the surface.

"What?" he murmured, pulling back, his expression mildly affronted.

At times like this I was reminded how young I was, how _new _this was to me. I lovedhis words, his promises, his vows. But I was also a little overwhelmed by them, though only briefly.

"I love you, too," I answered, my smile fading as the reality of the depth of our feelings settled over me like a blanket, safe, secure and yet undeniably sexual.

He was everything to me, and I wanted to give everything that I was to him.

"Make love to me?" I asked, and his eyes darkened, his body surging over mine and pinning me to the ground.

"Gladly," he growled. His mouth claimed mine, and I kissed him back with everything I felt inside.

We lost ourselves in the moment: the love, the lust, the memory of how good we could make each other feel with just kisses and touches igniting a fire that threatened to consume us. Our kisses deepened, our moans grew louder and more desperate, and our hands traveled to places they'd not been before. But then he pulled back and rested his forehead against mine, panting softly.

"Sorry," he whispered sheepishly.

"Don't be."

"Need to go slower...want to be gentle."

"Okay..." I agreed only a little reluctantly and activated my gift.

_Slow...gentle...human..._ I established the pattern of thought in the part of my mind that worked supernaturally, and we both felt the calming influence of my strange talent.

"Better?" I breathed, and he nodded, quirking a brow in that ridiculously seductive way of his.

It was a wonder we'd lasted this long.

"We can be vampires later," he murmured huskily, his eyes intense and filled with promise.

Gift or no gift, I couldn't control the rumbling growl that vibrated from inside my chest at his low and sexy tone.

He growled back at me, like the wild cat he resembled, and I seriously considered dropping the shield I'd only just raised. But then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before standing to his feet.

He'd meant what he said. He wanted to take things slowly, to give me as _human _an experience as possible. I didn't mind how slowly we went as he didn't stop altogether.

"Don't..._leave." _I frowned, worried he might have changed his mind when he stood staring down at me for a moment.

"Why would I do that, and where would I go?" He seemed perplexed by my comment. In a fluid movement, he removed his shirt and tossed it aside.

Relieved, I smirked. "Don't want me ripping another one of your shirts to shreds?" I teased, standing slowly and admiring the stunning view of his sculpted torso, broad shoulders, and lean but muscular arms.

He shrugged. "There's only a couple more in the bag. I don't mind going bare-chested, but if your father's visiting when we return home, it could be a bit embarrassing."

Our smiles faded as the reality of the situation, the awareness of what we were about to do, returned with his words. My fingers rose to the buttons on my shirt, and I slipped the first one through the hole...and then the second.

Edward's gaze was riveted to the widening vee of bare skin my actions revealed. I was fairly certain my shirt would have ended up in pieces also if we'd allowed our vampire instincts free rein. But he was right. Slow and gentle was what we needed for our first time.

If I were still human, I'd have been self-conscious. But with my transformation had come a level of courage I'd not previously possessed. Besides...this was Edward. I wanted to be with him more than I'd ever wanted anything, and I refused to allow fear of any sort to spoil this special time.

When all the buttons were undone, I boldly slipped the shirt from my shoulders and let it fall to the ground, leaving me standing before him wearing only my bra, jeans, and shoes. In one accord, we both toed our shoes and socks from our feet. Then Edward undid the button and zip on his jeans and slowly lowered them over his hips and legs before tossing them aside.

I gaped. Dressed only in tight-fitting boxers, Edward's erection was clearly and prominently visible, delineated by the thin, stretchy material of his underwear.

My eyes shot to his face to find him watching me, his expression wary. Did he think I would reject him? Quickly undoing my jeans, I slid them off and kicked them out of the way, my hands moving to the clasp on the back of my bra.

"Wait," he entreated, his hand reaching toward me and touching my bare belly. "Let me," he whispered, and I froze in place.

Closing the distance between us, he reached around me with his arms. I felt the clasp of my bra give way. Then it was gone, and my bare breasts came in tantalizing contact with Edward's equally bare chest.

We both gasped at the incredible sensation, my arms wrapping around his shoulders as he pulled me into his embrace.

"Oh, Bella," he breathed, his lips finding mine while our hands tenderly mapped each other's bodies. When Edward's fingers slowly traced a line around my ribcage and then caressed the curve of my breast, my knees weakened.

"Maybe we should lie down?" I suggested, my voice a breathy whisper.

Edward nodded. "Let's get these out of the way first." His hands lowered to my hips, his fingers hooking beneath the lacy trim of my panties.

"Yours, too?" My voice rose on a query, and I bit my lip.

If this hadn't been our first time to see each other naked we probably would have undressed each other in a slow, sexy way. But suddenly shy, we quickly removed our own underwear before standing to face one another. The nerves and self-consciousness that I'd denied were an issue surfaced unexpectedly, and I kept my eyes on Edward's face, not daring to look elsewhere. His gaze roamed my body, his expression reverent.

"You're so beautiful," he murmured, my thoughts echoing his words. From his intense, amber eyes, angled cheekbones and chiseled jaw, to his dazzling smile, Edward was so good-looking he almost didn't seem real.

But he was, and he was mine...and always would be.

Finding the courage to lower my eyes, I took in _all _of him.

"Oh...my..." I whispered, awed by his sheer, utter perfection and intimidating masculinity.

Then my gaze returned to his face, and holding hands, we lowered ourselves to the blanket. Laying on our sides, we faced one another, Edward urging me closer and drawing me into his arms.

_Slow...gentle...human..._the litany replayed in my mind as we loved each other fully. Soft kisses and tender caresses led to more intimate touches. Everything about Edward attracted me, enticed me, fit _perfectly_ with every part of me. His taste, his touch, his hands and mouth and words and actions brought me to the place where I was completely ready to be one with him.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered, hovering over me once more, poised and ready to join his beautiful body with mine.

"You won't," I assured him, not sure how I knew, but _knowing _with a certainty that lit me from within.

And he didn't.

With our eyes locked and soft smiles curving our lips, Edward made love to me for the very first time, and it was wonderful...just wonderful.

_~HIS~_

**_Awww…sweet, sappy and not very graphic. But it felt right for their first time. Next up we have Edward's POV…and he's a details man. ;)_**

**_xxx TLSue_**

**_PS: I've been accused of writing completely unrealistic 'first times' but maybe I was just lucky...besides, they're vampires!  
_**


	33. Bliss

_**Stephenie Meyers owns Twilight. No waffle from me...I want to hear from Edward! (details but not overly graphic for those who are concerned)**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, and to all my readers for your support for Hunted in Seattle. I was able to post this chapter a little early as I had a cancellation at work. ;)  
**_

_**Words: 2990**_

Chapter 33

Bliss

EPOV

The belief I'd held to for decades, that I was not truly living, no longer made any sense. Finding and falling in love with Bella was the most life-altering, life-_affirming,_ experience of my existence. As for making love to her...I'd never felt more alive_._

"You won't hurt me," she whispered when I hesitated, aroused beyond imagining and poised at the entrance to her body. "I trust you."

It was all I needed to hear, and slowly...gently...I pushed my way inside. She widened her legs, welcoming me, and the guttural groan that tore from my lips echoed my stunned thoughts.

_Oh, God..._

_Oh...My...God..._

Nothing had prepared me for this. The sexual experiences I'd seen and heard in the minds of countless individuals were suddenly completely irrelevant and utterly inconsequential.

"Bella," I panted against her neck while my body trembled and shuddered. I was inside her, all the way inside her. An enticing combination of softness and heat, she squeezed tightly around me. Wet, velvet, pulsing...I couldn't begin to find the right words for what I was feeling.

We were one, and it was exquisite.

I dared not move, afraid that our first time would be over before it began. While my recovery would be virtually immediate, I wanted to make this time...our very first time _ever..._special. Which meant I needed to last more than a few seconds.

"Edward?" Bella's hands roamed across my back, coming to rest in the curls at the nape of my neck. "Are you okay?"

Lifting my head to meet her sweet but slightly troubled gaze, I grinned. Emmett had a name for this particular type of smile, one that always seemed a little incongruous to me, but Bella's relief at seeing it was instant.

"I am so much more than just 'okay,'" I whispered. "Are you?"

"Yes," she purred, reaching up to meet my kiss, a gentle brush of lips that she responded to with a moan. Arching beneath me, her body clenched where I was sheathed within her. A tremor rippled through her, triggering a corresponding one of pleasure in me.

Deepening our kiss, which quickly became a frantic sharing of lips and tongues and taste, I pulled slowly out before pushing back inside of her again.

_Oh, thank you, God..._

"Oh, God." Bella's cry, wrenched from her lips as I thrust more deeply inside her, echoed my reverential prayer of gratitude and astonishment.

It was a good thing I'd had no real comprehension that it would feel like this, or parental chaperones or not, I could never have waited this long to make Bella mine.

Establishing a rhythm, one that our bodies seemed to instinctively understand, Bella and I made love to each other fully for the very first time...and it was truly wonderful. Within moments, we reached the place we'd found twice together already while fully clothed, with barely a kiss and a few caresses instigating our release. But this was so much better. The feel of Bella's body as I moved over her: silky skin sliding beneath me; the swell of firm breasts and taut nipples brushing against my chest; smooth thighs pressed to the outside of my own...was sublime.

With our joint release imminent, we slowed our movements, wanting to make it last this time.

"Oh, Edward," Bella murmured while I stared down at her, drowning in her dark, doe eyes. "You feel so good inside of me."

"I know. It's amazing..._you're _amazing." Leaning down, I nuzzled along her neck, one hand reaching between us to gently caress her beautiful breasts.

"I don't want it to end." Her hips rose to meet mine as I began to move inside her again in a slow, steady rhythm.

I laughed, a hoarse, breathy sound. "It won't...I mean, it _will..._but then we can just do it again...and again...and again..."

"Thank God," Bella moaned, wrapping her lovely legs around my hips and urging me to move faster and harder. I wasn't sure if she was using her talent, but we managed to last for a while...savoring the feel of one another...murmuring endearments...exchanging caresses. When her body began to pulse around me again, we didn't hesitate. Holding each other close, we let the pleasure build, crying out as ecstasy overwhelmed us.

"Oh, Edward...Edward..." Bella panted, repeating my name as I rocked and shuddered against her for long, rapturous moments. Her release continued long after mine was over, radiating out from her core, causing her to whimper and hold me tight. I'd never seen a more beautiful sight than Bella's face awash with rapture, and I felt the strongest urge to throw my head back and laugh with sheer...utter...joy.

When she finally stilled, I rolled us over so that she came to rest lying full length atop my body. My weight wouldn't crush her, but it felt right for me to hold and cherish her this way.

"Bella...my love...my life..." I murmured, and she lifted her head to look me in the eyes.

"I am...aren't I?" she whispered. "Your love...your life."

Smiling, I nodded.

"As you are mine," she added. "_My _love..._my _life."

She cupped my cheek with her hand, and I turned my head to kiss her palm.

"Thank you." I swallowed hard, overcome with emotion at her words and the wonder of what we'd just shared.

"You are very..._very..._welcome." Smiling shyly, she sat up with her knees astride my hips. She wiggled a little until I was buried even more deeply inside her, and I stared up at her in awe.

"Is this okay?" she asked unnecessarily, catching her lower lip between her teeth.

"Yes!" I insisted, my hands reaching to guide her hips as she began to move above me, riding my length. "Oh...yes."

We made love for hours, relatively slowly, surprisingly gently, and in as human a fashion as possible considering our vampire strength, speed, and flexibility. Exploring the almost infinite possibilities, we were limited only by the self-imposed restraint we'd placed upon ourselves. The memories of all our firsts would be colored with tenderness, a sweet, slow loving that nevertheless saw us overwhelmed in ecstasy...repeatedly.

As night fell, our inhibitions melted away, and our vampire natures came to the fore.

"Can't keep my talent working any longer," Bella gasped as she writhed beneath me. "Don't want to..."

"Let go, sweetheart...let us _both_ go," I encouraged, my voice a gravelly growl beside her ear.

She did, and what we discovered about ourselves and each other stunned us both...in the best possible way.

"Is this good for you?" I panted against her ear, many hours and multiple positions later. Taking her almost roughly from behind, I had bent her over a huge boulder that creaked and groaned with the force we inflicted upon it. Her fingers were dug deep into the rock, holding her in place.

"You need to ask?" she laughed breathlessly, arching her hips and pushing back against my aggressive thrusts.

"Don't hold anything back," she urged, and the boulder was reduced to rubble by the time we were finished. I, on the other hand, had never felt so complete, so totally at one with my vampire nature...and my awe-inspiring mate.

Far from finished, we moved to stand with Bella's back against a huge pine, her legs wrapped around my waist. Mating with complete abandon, we felled the ancient tree in the process.

"Oops." Bella looked at the carnage all around us when we eventually came to our senses. But then she shrugged. "Emmett will be impressed."

My laughter did delicious things to our joined bodies, and we soon forgot the less than environmentally sensitive effects of our lovemaking, returning our focus to the seemingly never ending but far from arduous task of satisfying one another.

"We're a mess," Bella murmured sometime later, lazily scanning our dirt and debris covered bodies.

"That we are," I agreed, picking her up in my arms and heading further up into the mountains.

"You don't need to carry me, Edward," she observed. "I'm not the least bit sore or tired despite...well..._everything._"

"Indulge me?" I whispered against her ear and she laughed, linking her arms around my neck and cuddling close.

"Where are you taking me?"

Reaching our destination, I let her slide from my arms, answering her a question with a sweep of my arm. The hot springs I'd found on one of my nocturnal expeditions—when I'd wanted to get _away _from a house filled with lovemaking couples—was a favorite place of mine. Sheltered by the mountain, it was tucked beneath a bower of greenery.

"Oh...how lovely." Bella walked to the edge of the rock pool before hesitating. "The water looks too hot. Look at the steam, and there are bubbles."

"Definitely too hot for humans," I agreed. "But not for us. I come here quite often."

Stepping down into the water that a human would find scalding, I sighed at the blissful feel of the steaming water...though having recently discovered what true bliss was, it seemed almost sacrilegious to describe anything as mundane as a hot spring with the same word.

"This feels wonderful," Bella sighed, sinking down beside me. Her description was fitting, though, of course, making love to Bella was _the _most wonderful thing of all.

I pulled her toward me, ready to take up where we'd left off, but she surprised me by dunking my head under the water. Unable to choke or drown, I nevertheless came up spluttering to the truly magical sound of her laughter.

"You had twigs and mud in your hair," she defended when I eyed her with mock affront.

Waggling my eyebrows, I stalked toward her, sending her backing away in a flurry of splashing arms and legs. "So do you," I taunted, capturing her by the ankle and dragging her under the bubbling water.

Between laughing caresses and increasingly passionate kisses, we washed each other clean, delighting in the feel of wet, slippery skin.

Inevitably, we made love in the water, enjoying the new opportunities the buoyancy afforded us. Not needing to breathe had its benefits, and I made sure to pleasure Bella in every possible way.

"Are you sure no one can hear us?" she panted, having screamed loud enough with her most recent release to trigger an avalanche on a neighboring peak.

"I promise." I cupped her face in my hands and gazed deep into her eyes. "Multi-tasking, remember? There's a small part of my brain set to alert. I can assure you, I would pick up the mental chatter of an intruder...human, vampire or wolf...long before they could get close enough to bother us."

"Good." She nodded, but then her brow furrowed. "Though I don't know if I like the idea of you not being one hundred percent focused on..._us."_

"Oh, Bella, believe me...you have my attention," I rubbed my insatiable and still fully erect arousal against her belly and was rewarded with her very satisfied smile.

We hunted again the second evening, both our thirsts flaring as the vampire equivalent of exhaustion, which was perhaps closer to dehydration, finally overcame us. Sharing a huge buck, we gave our vampire natures free rein, and before we'd even finished, I pulled Bella against me. Entering her from behind while she continued to suck and swallow from the beast's neck, I claimed my mate. The feral growls reverberating from deep within both our chests added to the experience.

When both her blood and sexual thirsts were sated, Bella twisted around so that we could kiss, the taste of blood in our mouths heightening our pleasure.

"It feels incredible when you growl like that." Bella writhed on my lap as I moved inside her. "The vibrations go right through me," she groaned, and I smiled against her shoulder, sharing her enjoyment and feeling decidedly smug. _Not _that I'd be kissing and telling, but it was immensely satisfying to know that, despite our shy and virginal beginning, we were already giving Emmett and Rose a run for their money.

Bella and I were faced with constraints that the other members of my family hadn't had to deal with: maintaining a relationship with her family and finishing her studies which was of great importance to her. We weren't technically married yet—something I could not bring myself to regret in the least at this particular moment in time. But I had a feeling that _our _honeymoon would last a lot longer than a decade.

As to how many times we made love...how did one define it? Whether gentle, slow, and human or rough, instinctual, and ravaging, I was determined to put Bella's needs ahead of my own. My priority was her pleasure. The result of my endeavor was a complete immersion in a world of such utter bliss that I was rewarded tenfold, a _hundredfold_, for my efforts. Bella's orgasms rolled on and on, one flowing into another and triggering my own release repeatedly.

"I love you so much," I whispered against her sweet-smelling skin sometime during the third night. Our exploration of each other's bodies with hands, and lips, and mouths had continued unabated.

"Love you...forever...always..." Bella murmured, barely coherent, her head thrown back as I took her from behind. With both of us kneeling on a bed of cool, green grass, her body trembled and writhed beneath my caressing hands and the kisses I trailed down her spine. My long, slow thrusts reached deep inside her pulsing core as we both found our release again...and again...and again.

Finally, though no doubt temporarily, sated, we collapsed on the ground, wrapped in each other's arms.

"Will it always be like this?" Bella murmured as we lay staring up at the stars that had appeared in a gap in the clouds.

"Definitely not." I shook my head, and she turned her head abruptly toward me. "It will get better and better," I added.

She smirked. "Not possible."

"Wanna bet?" I surprised myself by teasing.

Moving to lay her body full length on top of mine, she smiled down at me.

"What do I get if I win?"

"You _want _to win that bet?" I puzzled.

Giggling, Bella leaned down to kiss the tip of my nose.

"Nope," she admitted. "I just wanted to see your eyebrows go all crazy." She wiggled her own eyebrows, Groucho Marx style, and I mock scowled. Rolling us over, I pinned her beneath me, grateful that she allowed it. With her newborn strength, she could have easily tossed me aside.

"What do I get if _I _win the bet?" I demanded, and Bella giggled some more.

"The benefit of the 'better and better,' of course!"

"True," I conceded, rubbing my nose against hers Eskimo fashion.

Her smile faded, and I wished, not for the first time, that I could have a glimpse inside her mind. I had no doubt that it would be a glorious place.

"What is it, sweetheart?" I asked, moving so that we lay on our sides facing one another.

"It's not just the vampire mating thing between us, is it?"

"No!" I shook my head vehemently. "I _love _you, Bella. Human, vampire...I would have _always_ loved you..._will _always love you. The vampire bond just means our feelings won't ever wane or fluctuate like they sometimes do for humans."

She reached to cup my face. "But won't that mean we'll just end up taking each other for granted?"

"Quite the opposite," I assured her, but her frown didn't lighten. "What are you worried about?"

She shrugged. "It's silly."

"Not to me," I insisted.

Sighing, she lay on her back and stared up at the skies. "I can't help thinking about James and Victoria. They're supposed to be a mated couple, but it was obvious he wasn't faithful to her, and he treated her horribly. Then there's Laurent. He believed I was his mate, yet I couldn't stand him. I know things are different between your family members, that we don't kill humans makes a big difference to the strength of our bonds." She turned her head to face me. "But I guess it still plays on my mind."

We'd been over this before, but I would do my best to reassure her as many times as she needed.

"Laurent _desired _you, Bella, and mistook his feelings for the mating bond," I patiently explained. "Vampires are very prone to lust in all its forms, but if he'd truly cared for you, he could never have stood by and allowed James' abuse." A shudder racked me at the memory of her imprisonment, of the sound of Bella's screams of pain and the fear I'd felt not knowing if she would survive her ordeal.

"Shh...it's okay," she soothed, running her fingers through my hair. "I'm safe and we're together."

Nodding, I regained my composure. We'd come to the conclusion that James must have been a true psychopath even as a human, his self-absorption and total lack of empathy affecting his ability to form a true bond. In a sense, all vampires were psychopaths...the traditional ones...but Carlisle had assured Bella that even the Volturi leaders cared for and cherished their mates, having eyes for no other.

"James is an aberration," I reminded her, wishing there was more that I could say but imagining that it would take time for Bella to come to terms with what she'd experienced at the hands of her attackers.

"_You'll _never cheat on me?" She looked up at me through her lashes, and I put all my heart into my response.

"_Never,_" I assured her. "There will never, _ever _be anyone for me but you."

Her smile unwound the knot that had formed in my chest. "Good," she whispered, snuggling against me.

The thought of hurting Bella in that or any other way was anathema to me. Nor would I allow anyone else to hurt her.

James would come for her, of that I was certain, but we'd be waiting...and he would not win.

_~HIS~_

_**Edward's such a gentleman: sweet, sexy, passionate, protective. I think Stephenie Meyer created an amazing character. I'm not sure what she'd think about my not fading to black, but hey...we needed some details.**_

_**Thank you to those who are still taking the time to post reviews for this story. I appreciate every one. :) **_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	34. Reluctance

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. Now that I am finally home from work, I got to see the new BD2 trailer from the VMAs, and it was awesome!**_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Squeaky Zorro and Chloe Cougar, for getting this chapter back to me so quickly despite both being insanely busy at work. I may have added in some lemons that weren't there when this chapter was beta'ed. Oops.**_

_**I'm glad you guys enjoyed Edward's POV of our loved-up couple's little interlude. I think we're all in agreement that Bella is one lucky girl and that being a vampire could have it's benefits. ;) As many of you have noticed, I've deliberately toned down Edward's canon 'stalker, controlling, patronizing' side in this story. This Bella is also more assertive, which I attribute to her traumatic change…and the fact that I found canon Bella's doormat tendencies pretty frustrating.**_

_**Sorry I'm a bit late with answering questions from last chapter (real life can be a drag sometimes), but I'll do my best to get to them tonight. **_

_**Words: 2289**_

Chapter 34

Reluctance

BPOV

"Bella." Edward's lips brushed against my skin. "We need to get up."

"Don't want to," I mumbled, snuggling in against him even more tightly.

His chuckle vibrated right through me, but for once, I didn't respond with immediate and overwhelming arousal.

"Neither do I," he admitted. "But it's time we went home."

Sighing, I sat up and hugged my arms around my knees.

"We can't go home," I insisted, my lower lip pouting.

"Why?"

"No clothes." I shot him a sultry smile, hoping to distract him. His eyes darkened, but he slowly shook his head, his expression apologetic.

For someone who'd always considered herself extremely reserved, I'd certainly shed my inhibitions around Edward. Even now, sitting beside him completely naked after having made love almost nonstop for the previous three days and nights—in ways I'd not even come close to imagining—I felt no embarrassment. It had to be a vampire thing.

"Come on, sweetheart." Edward stood and reached for my hand. "I left the backpack near the river. We can bathe before we dress so that we don't look quite so disreputable on our return."

"Won't matter," I continued to grumble as we ran hand-in-hand through the trees. "Emmett will still tease us, Alice probably has a dozen flouncy wedding dresses for me to try on, Charlie will be having a fit that I've been out of contact for so long..."

Edward ground to a halt, pulling me to face him.

"Hey." He reached to cup my face. "I'll deal with Emmett, I promise. As for Alice, all we've decided is that sometime in the future when the time is right for _us, _we'll return to our meadow and I'll propose. Alice only gets as much say in the planning for _our _future as we want to give her. Okay?"

I nodded, though a bit reluctantly. "What about Charlie? I know he and Renee gave their blessing for me to make the most of my new life, but somehow I don't think they meant I should disappear on a three-day orgy of..."

Smirking, Edward silenced me with a finger to my lips. "They don't have to know what we've been up to," he naively attempted to assure me.

"Oh, they'll know," I muttered.

Sighing, I tried to shake off my melancholy mood, but my stomach knotted with dread at the thought of going back to the house. It wasn't just my parents knowing I was having sex...lots and lots of sex...that was freaking me out. So many things had changed in my life in such a short space of time that I was understandably overwhelmed. A tiny part of me—_not _the vampire side that would have happily taken off into the mountains with Edward and not returned for a decade or two—wished the roller coaster would slow down long enough for me to catch my breath. I couldn't possibly regret what I'd found with Edward, but everything was happening so quickly, I barely had time to savor any of it.

Well...strictly speaking that wasn't entirely correct. For three days and nights, I'd savored every aspect of my lover in glorious, wondrous detail. I just felt like we'd brushed over the first date, boyfriend-girlfriend aspect a little quickly. His family was great, but being thrust into the role of one half of an intensely amorous couple in a household of intensely amorous couples was going to take some adjusting.

I wasn't at all surprised to find my dad waiting for us when we arrived home in the early evening. The Cullens were arrayed around him, the tension palpable.

Ducking my head, I lagged a little behind Edward.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. It's going to be fine," he murmured, too low for Charlie to hear.

Despite Charlie's assurances that he approved of Edward and wanted me to be happy, I couldn't see him coping too well with knowing that I was no longer a virgin. Emmett thought my dad had a wicked sense of humor, but the look in Charlie's eyes when he'd threatened to set Edward on fire if he hurt me had been deadly serious.

"Watch out for firelighters," I whispered. Emmett snorted, drawing my dad's attention. "Just how flammable are we?" I asked, tugging Edward so that he spun around to face me.

"Not very, and Alice would definitely see something like that ahead of time." Edward smiled at me reassuringly before turning back to face Charlie, confidently reaching to shake his hand.

Having bathed and changed into fresh clothes from Alice's magical backpack—there'd even been a hair brush that Edward had put to good use detangling my long locks—we looked like a couple of fresh-faced teenagers returning from an innocent date. The reality was a little different, and I was just relieved I could no longer blush. As it was, I couldn't help feeling that everything Edward and I had done was somehow written on our faces.

"You kids have a nice _three-day _camping trip?" Charlie asked dryly.

I flinched, and his eyes narrowed. Edward's arm came around my shoulder, and I gratefully pressed against his side.

"Yes, we did, thank you," Edward responded politely. "I hope my keeping Bella out for so long didn't worry you. We hunted mountain lion, and I took her to see some of my favorite places."

"Mountain lion." Charlie stared blankly for a moment. "I never pictured Bella sleeping rough, let alone hunting wild cats. Where's all your camping gear?" He glanced at the now almost empty and extremely battered backpack slung over Edward's shoulder, and I waved a hand vaguely behind us.

"Dinner's served." Esme changed the topic, and I shot her a grateful glance as she and Carlisle ushered Charlie through into the dining room. Alice rushed to my side, squeeing quietly in my ear.

"How was it? Oh...I _know _how it was, but I can't wait to hear all about it from your perspective." I stared at her in alarm, but she took no notice. "And don't worry about me choosing an eighties dress with enormous shoulder pads and bows everywhere. Give me a little credit, Bella. I know that's not your style."

"Alice," Edward growled, glowering at her intently. One of their weird, quiet exchanges followed where Alice thought or pictured something for Edward to see and then she looked for his response in one of her visions based on the decisions he made.

"I've kept my distance to give you two time to get to know each other," she defended when she'd blinked out of her semi-trance. "But Bella and I are going to be the very best of friends. She's going to _love _me, so you can both stop worrying." With that, she smiled brightly before skipping to Jasper's side.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to it," Rose added, her tone dry as dust.

"Thanks," I murmured wanly. It wasn't that I hadn't spent time with Edward's family over the previous couple of weeks, but with my parents around, Renee actually staying at the house, they'd given me plenty of space. I had a feeling once Charlie left for the night, the inquisition would begin in earnest.

"So...you guys leave any of the forest standing?" Emmett smirked, and I reevaluated my opinion on when the interrogation would begin. "I'm taking it the avalanche was your doing? What I want to know is if it was you roaring," he bumped Edward on the arm with his elbow, "or you screaming," he waggled his eyebrows at me suggestively, "that triggered it off?"

Edward growled, his muscles bunching, but I held him back.

"You can deal with him later," I hissed, nodding my head in Charlie's direction. He was watching the interaction and continued to eye us closely throughout the dinner that only he could eat. Edward and I struggled to keep a respectful distance from one another, restricting ourselves to bumping knees and playing with each other's fingers beneath the table. Even utilizing my talent at full strength, it was a challenge to keep our hunger for each other contained.

"He knows, doesn't he?" I whispered in Edward's ear when Charlie took a bathroom break.

"He's trying not to think about it, but he suspects that we've been..._intimate,_" Edward admitted. Emmett snickered, and without glancing in his brother's direction, Edward punched him in the head. Emmett tumbled over backwards, smashing his chair to kindling in the process. The debris was removed, another chair put in its place, and Emmett seated back at the table as if nothing had happened by the time Charlie returned.

"I'll tell you about it and deal with him later," Edward murmured close to my ear.

"No need. I'll bring him to heel." Rosalie speared Emmett with a look that had him cowering in his seat.

"Aww Rose," he muttered, and I smiled my appreciation at Edward's intimidating sister.

A little bit of teasing I could handle. In fact, I was pretty sure I could give Emmett a run for his money. But I didn't need him giving Edward or me a hard time when my dad was around.

"He treating you okay?" Charlie asked later that evening when we were standing beside his truck, getting ready to say goodbye. His eyes flickered toward Edward who'd stayed on the porch to give me a few minutes alone with my dad.

"He's great, Dad. He's treating me really well."

"I can't help worrying that this is all happening too fast," he admitted with a shrug, his fears quite understandably mirroring my own concerns. "It's like you're being forced to grow up overnight, a bit like your mother and I when we found out we were going to be parents."

"I'm coping." It was my turn to shrug. "And it's not like I've got any choice in the matter."

"Nope...I suppose you don't." Charlie smiled, but it didn't quite meet his eyes. "I'm real proud of how you're handling all of this," he added before saying goodbye for the night and promising to call me the next day. "Mountain lion," I heard him mutter as the truck drove away.

Edward was by my side instantly, his hands gripping my shoulders. "I'm so sorry you didn't get a choice," he murmured, a look of anguish in his eyes. "I'm sorry if I've rushed or made you feel forced in any way."

"Hey. None of that." I moved into his embrace and reached up to kiss him gently. "I wasn't lying to my dad, but there's more to how I feel. I think if I'd arrived on schedule in Forks, I would have ended up begging for you to change me at some point anyway. I'd have been terrified of losing you. I'm not about to thank Laurent for what he did, but I'm not sorry about the outcome...about being with you as your mate."

"I can't begin to tell you how good that is to hear," Edward murmured against my lips, the wind whipping past us as he carried me up to our room. It now boasted a very large, very comfortable, and fortunately, very sturdy bed...which we made _very _good use of.

Making love to Edward was the best distraction possible from my troubled thoughts. His touch, his taste, his mouth and hands on every part of my body consumed me until only one thought filled my mind.

Edward.

"Bella," he cried out, arching above me in the early hours of the morning. I loved watching him come apart, holding him close while we found ourselves in each other's arms.

"I love you so much," he murmured when he finally stilled, his words resonating right through me.

"I love you, too," I breathed against his lips, my body still shuddering with pleasure and contracting tightly around where he was buried deep inside me.

I'd wondered what it would be like once Edward and I returned to his house, to the dubious vampire version of privacy that would be afforded us in his room. But once he'd begun undressing me…kissing me…stroking and caressing and arousing me…I'd not given his family another thought. I supposed that if I'd wanted to, I could have tracked their movements and comments, and on one level, my multi-tasking vampire brain probably had. But Edward was my focus.

His family had done their best not to intrude on our time together, even Emmett, for which I would personally thank Rose the next day. I imagined that the overflow of love and lust and joy emanating from Edward and me would have swamped Jasper pretty quickly—one of the consequences he'd mentioned of having a newly mated couple around—and he'd no doubt shared the benefits. Thinking back, I accessed the memories that had been automatically stored while I was blissfully preoccupied. The other couples had retreated to their rooms not long after Edward and I had retired. They'd been engaged in similar fashion to Edward and me for who knew how many hours, but I'd not even noticed and couldn't bring myself to care. Complete privacy like we'd had in the mountains would be nice. But so was sharing _our_ bed in _our_ home surrounded by the people I hoped would soon seem like _our _family…and not just Edward's.

"Thanks for the bed, guys," I lifted my voice just a fraction sometime later in the night when coherent thought and speech was once again possible...and there was a convenient lull in activities.

"You're welcome," "Don't mention it," and "It was nothing," echoed from various parts of the house, and I giggled.

"What?" Edward asked, spooning our naked bodies and holding me close.

"We're like the vampire equivalent of the Waltons," I explained, and his family's laughter mingled with our own.

_~HIS~_

_**Thanks for all the reviews, guys. I'm trying not to drag out this story with excessive exposition or repetition. If you're looking for a heap more family bonding time, vampire date nights, adjustment time, random lemons etc, check out my other vamp story, Once Bitten. As for Hunted in Seattle, there's action ahead and only a few chapters left...but they're long ones!**_

_**xxx Sue**_


	35. Planning

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm not much of a plotter and schemer, but I've tried to make sense of the tweaks in this story.**_

_**Thanks, as always, to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro.**_

_**I'm glad you guys enjoyed 'The Waltons' comparison. Like many of you, I'm not too sure how I would have taken to living with the in-laws full time. I like my privacy. I do appreciate the need for the Cullens to band together. Maybe separate cottages on the same estate with a communal meeting area? They've got to be rich enough, surely. ;)**_

_**Enough with the living arrangements and family bonding time. Trouble ahead...**_

_**Words: 2112**_

Chapter 35

Planning

BPOV

"I don't understand. We've come up with a dozen different plans, any one of them with a good chance of success. But every time the result is the same...one of them escapes, and one of us is injured or even killed." Alice's shoulders drooped and she let her head fall back against Jasper's chest.

"That settles it then," Jasper grimaced. "There's definitely talent involved."

Turning, I hid my head against Edward's shoulder where I sat curled up on his lap. We'd been over this numerous times over the previous few days, ever since Alice had seen James finding the ship where I'd hidden his leg.

It never got any easier.

"This is all my fault," I muttered.

Edward sighed, gently chucking my chin so that I'd meet his eyes. "Sweetheart, your compassionate nature is something to be proud of. _You _did nothing wrong."

"But if I'd killed them when I had the chance, or at least burned their limbs, they wouldn't be threatening us...and all those poor sailors would still be alive," I argued. A shudder ran though me, just as it did whenever I thought of the rage that had consumed James after he'd reattached his leg. He'd slaughtered the ship's crew in a fit of pique, sending the enormous vessel to the ocean floor.

Edward hadn't wanted to tell me what Alice had seen, but I'd insisted. Even after such a relatively short time together, I was too attuned to his moods to accept his hastily assured, "It was nothing."

"You might be eighty years my senior, but don't treat me like a child," I'd snapped at him after he'd come clean, stalking off to our room to give myself some time to cool off. My reaction had more to do with my feeling responsible for the lives that had been lost and fear of what was to come than anger at Edward trying to protect me from the truth. Finding me curled up on the bed, he'd approached slowly before laying down beside me.

"You're right, and I'm sorry," he'd said, and I'd chuckled, turning to nestle into his side. If that was his response every time I got upset, arguments between us would be few and short-lived...and I was going to end up terribly spoiled. He never lost patience with me despite the fact that my moods could be volatile. My talent helped, but Jasper was right; being a newborn could be a pain.

"The odds of you surviving an attempt to destroy James and Victoria would not have been in your favor." Jasper repeated a comment he'd made several times, bringing my thoughts back into focus...and out of Edward's and my bedroom where they had a tendency to stray.

"You did the best you could," Carlisle added. "And you stayed true to yourself in the process."

I smiled at his words, trying to take them to heart, but then my smile fell.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

"I'm just wondering who's got the talent, James or Victoria."

"What I want to know is _what _the talent is so that we can start to work around it." Jasper leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees while Alice rubbed his back.

"Laurent did say that James would come after me if I tried to escape," I offered. "It seemed strange to me at the time as Laurent was the one saying I was his mate."

"It took James a while to find his leg." Rosalie shrugged, leaning her head against Emmett's knee from where she was sitting on the ground between his legs.

"If his talent is anything like Demetri's," Carlisle interjected, mentioning the Volturi tracker he'd told us about, "he'd need a live target to follow. I'm not sure a severed limb would fall into that category."

"He found Laurent quickly enough once he started looking," Alice agreed, a shudder running through me and a growl emitting from Edward's chest at the mention of my creator's name.

As soon as James and Victoria had made it to land, _Alaska _to be precise, they'd headed unerringly for Laurent. At first we'd suspected James was going to destroy Laurent for abandoning them as he'd threatened, but instead, he'd demanded Laurent's allegiance and support in tracking me down. James didn't want me dead straight away. He was obsessed with making me submit to him...and making me suffer.

I hadn't been all that worried at first. There were eight of us, four talented. For backup, Charlie insisted we could call on the wolves for support, having explained to them that my attackers were after me again. But until we came up with a plan that guaranteed _all _of our survival, our hands were tied.

James' and his unholy accomplices' hands were not. Whether he'd found me using the media reports easily accessed via the Internet or had just honed in on my location using his talent, they'd found us...and they were getting bolder. The bodies of a couple of young hikers had been discovered on the outskirts of Forks just the day before. While the deaths were being blamed on a rogue bear attack, the wolves had picked up the scent of vampire. They'd even spotted a flame-haired female, but they'd been unable to catch her.

"Victoria," I'd gasped when Sam came to tell us the news.

"We had her surrounded and should have taken her easily, but she slipped right through our ranks," Sam had growled, his expression showing his disgust.

"She was here to check on Bella and went back to James with what she discovered," Alice told us after Sam left, and her visions of the future were no longer blocked by his presence.

"I think we can safely assume that they know that Bella is with us _and _that Victoria has a talent for evasion," Jasper sighed.

"Maybe that's why James keeps her around since he obviously doesn't care about anyone but himself," I muttered. "It's why she stays with him that has me beat."

"She _could _be mated to him," Edward murmured, nuzzling my hair. "She wouldn't have much say in the matter, just as he could be mated to her...he's just a complete psychopath, and it's warped the bond."

I sighed. "So James is a tracker, Victoria has a talent for evasion, and Laurent is a cowardly sleaze ball. There's still only three of them against the eight of us. I don't understand why we can't take them? The wolves are involved now, so maybe with their help..."

Alice shrugged. "The one time we included the wolves in the plan, I couldn't see anything."

"What about if we come up with a plan that includes the wolves and then you look ahead to _after _the fight? We can decide now that we'll have a debrief once it's all over, and you can see what we're saying about what happened," I suggested.

"That's a great idea." Edward smiled at me but then his attention was taken up with following Alice's vision. The rest of us stayed silent while Alice searched the future. Normally Edward would tell us what she was seeing, but he remained quiet, his brow furrowing more and more fiercely until both he and Alice gasped and leaped to their feet at the same instant.

"Renee!"

"What?" I shouted as Alice ran to the computer and Edward dove for his phone, passing it to me. "What's wrong with Renee?"

"Nothing_...yet. _But you need to call your mom and tell her and Phil to go straight to the airport. There'll be tickets waiting for them at the counter."

"Why? What did you see?"

Edward stayed silent, his expression anguished.

"Tell me," I demanded.

"Alice saw us at your mother's funeral. James tracked her down and..."

I staggered on my feet, and he steadied me, pulling me into his arms.

"We won't let it happen. Alice is booking flights for her and Phil as we speak. Some of the family will meet them at the airport."

"But why did including the wolves in our plans lead to James going after Renee? I don't understand," I whimpered.

"Apparently, the wolves' presence interferes with James' talent like it does with Alice's," Edward explained. "With the wolves around, you faded off his radar, so to speak, and he couldn't track you. That's when he got the idea to use Renee as a lure. We couldn't see your side of the conversation, but Alice saw him call you. He threatened you...ordering you to rejoin his coven or he'd hurt your mom. We don't know exactly what happened, but in the next vision, we were at your mother's funeral."

"Oh, God," I whispered.

"Don't worry; we'll keep your parents safe," Esme promised, her eyes filled with compassion.

"You better believe it," Rose added. "That bastard's not taking your family from you, Bella, or you away from us."

His fists clenching repeatedly, Emmett stood beside his fired-up mate. "This has gone on long enough. We need to take these fu..." he glanced toward Esme and modified his language, "...assholes out once and for all."

"Until this is over, your parents, Charlie included, will need to stay on the reservation for protection. It's the only way we'll be able to focus on what has to be done." Carlisle's expression was both grim and resigned, a silent conversation passing between Edward and his creator-cum-father figure. Carlisle had initially argued for restraint, his innate pacifist nature struggling with the rest of the family's stated intention to destroy my attackers once we'd caught them. But it was obvious that unless we did, James would never relent, never stop coming after me or the people I loved.

"If James can't track Bella when the wolves are around, can we use that to our advantage?" Esme came to wrap her arm around me after I'd made the call to Renee. "We've changed things now that we're taking steps to keep Bella's family safe." She addressed Alice. "Why don't you check again and see if the outcome is different?"

"First, we need to decide how we're going to proceed," Jasper interjected.

We still had Victoria's talent for evasion to contend with, and with the wolves involved, we'd be operating blind. Needless to say, the first two plans we devised led to different sorts of disaster.

In the first, there was mayhem at the Quileute Reservation, with James and Victoria killing indiscriminately in their attempts to get to my parents as they assumed I'd be with them.

In the second, the mayhem occurred in Forks as James & Co went on a murdering spree to draw me out. They correctly assumed that I'd be upset by all the human deaths but didn't take into account the Volturi who arrived to mop up the mess they'd created. James and his coven were destroyed in that particular scenario, but so was the town of Forks, along with most of its inhabitants, in a Volturi-staged natural disaster. Edward and Alice wouldn't tell us what happened to the family...mine or _ours_.

"It's like that movie, The Butterfly Effect," I muttered, shaking my head. "Every time we try to make things better, they get worse."

"It was the same when you were being held captive," Rose grumbled. "Edward wasn't the only one that nearly went crazy when we couldn't go and rescue you from those psychopaths. I still can't believe you forgave us so easily for not getting you out of there."

"No, I understand," I assured her, rubbing Edward's arm soothingly when a shudder ran through him. He'd been so ashamed when he'd had to admit to me that they could have attempted a rescue but hadn't, leaving me to escape on my own because of the chaos Alice's visions showed would ensue if they'd tried.

"Waiting for James to come to us isn't getting us anywhere," I mused aloud. "What about if we take the fight to him?"

"What do you have in mind?" Jasper asked, and I outlined the plan that had coalesced in my thoughts, everyone adding ideas as we hammered out the details.

Alice froze, searching the future, and we waited with bated breath to see if we'd finally found a way to get the upper hand over my psychotic attackers. Her spreading smile and Edward's hissed "Yes," gave us the answer we'd been waiting for.

"You were right, Bella." The expression on Alice's normally sweet face gave her a surprisingly monstrous cast. "We've been going about this all wrong, waiting for them to come to us. It's time we went on the attack."

Edward growled, his expression sinister. "We're going hunting...in Seattle."

_~HIS~_

_**Yep...love me some aggressive Edward protecting his family...in particular his Bella. Anyone have any creative ideas for how to dispense with James?**_

_**Next update Tuesday, and it's a nice long one.**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	36. Offensive

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I had the joyful experience (not) of spending the last day and a half in hospital, trying to discover why I am constantly exhausted and short of breath. Probably just anemia, but it's frustrating as I take so much iron I should be able to spit nails. Sigh... **_

_**Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for their awesome betaing and amazingly quick turn arounds.**_

_**Thanks so much for the great reviews, but seriously, you guys are diabolical! I laughed so hard at some of your suggestions for how James & Co should meet their end, (napalm, wolf pits, vampire bowling using dismembered heads to knock down trees, a modified wood-chipper to reduce the body parts to dust which could then be melted in with tar for road surfacing, all three heads propped up to watch the bonfire and then left to suffer bodiless for all eternity - can't you just picture their disembodied heads, perched on some remote mountain ledge, squabbling amongst themselves? - and my favorite, snapping off all available appendages and shoving them up James'...er...orifice). I'm worried you're going to think my offering is rather tame in comparison to the exotic ideas you lot came up with...but here it is.**_

_**Words: 3993 (Nothing drabblish about that!)**_

Chapter 36

Offensive

BPOV

Once the decision was made to go on the offensive rather than wait for James, Victoria, and Laurent to come for me, everything moved quickly. Emmett, Rose, and Esme traveled to Seattle to collect Renee and Phil from the airport. I wanted to go with them but could see the sense in staying away. I was the target, and the last thing I wanted to do was lead James to my parents.

"I'll come visit you as soon as this is over," I assured Renee over the phone once she and Phil were settled with a reluctant and grumbling Charlie at Billy's house.

"This isn't right," she argued. "Your father and I should be the ones protecting you, not sending our teenage daughter off to fight the animals that abducted her."

"I'll be fine, Mom. Edward's family and the wolves will be the ones taking the risks." I crossed my fingers behind my back.

"Please, stay safe," she urged. "You've been sounding so happy when we've talked. I just want you to be able to move on from what happened to you and make the most of your new life. Charlie tells me that Edward is treating you well."

"He is, Mom," I assured her while trying _not _to become distracted by his lips nuzzling at my neck. "Stop it!" I hissed at him, rolling my eyes.

"Sorry." He shrugged and contented himself with resting his chin on my shoulder, his arms wrapped around me from behind.

"I _am _happy, Mom...with Edward and living with his family. I miss you, of course, and I can't wait until this is over and we can catch up. But please, don't worry about me."

"If you say so," she sighed. "I have to admit, this is a lovely place. I'm really enjoying hearing all about the history of the tribe from Billy, and Sue Clearwater has offered to show me some of their beautiful handicrafts."

"That's great," I encouraged. "Tell Phil I'm sorry for dragging him away from spring training. I hope he won't get into trouble."

"Honey...you did it to save our lives. You don't need to apologize." Renee's tone was dry. "The timing's actually pretty good as he needs to rest his arm, so please...stop worrying about us and concentrate on keeping yourself and that lovely young man of yours safe. I still wish your father could just call in a SWAT team or something."

"Me, too," Charlie grumbled from where I could hear he was sitting watching a game with Billy and Phil.

He'd insisted on taking his flat-screen TV with him even though we weren't expecting this to drag on for too long. In hindsight it had been a good idea, as Sam and Jasper had quickly vetoed Charlie's plans to go fishing. Sam and Jared were coming with us to Seattle, but Paul would be remaining behind to guard my parents, and it would be easier for him if they stayed together at Billy's house.

"Don't worry, Bella," Sam stated gruffly when I suggested he should leave Jared behind as well to ensure my folk's safety. "Paul won't leave his post."

"But what if something changes, and they come here instead?" I fretted even though we'd been over this already. "One wolf against three vampires is not good odds."

"I'll keep checking the future to make sure your parents are safe." Alice appeared at my side, linking our arms. "But now isn't the time to change the plan."

Reluctantly agreeing, I checked the battery and signal on my cell phone for the fifth time. Since we'd be splitting up, we'd need them to keep in touch.

"Sweetheart..." Edward drew me away from his sister and into his arms, an ongoing tug-of-war between the two of them with me the prize. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not me I'm worried about," I muttered, my mind a maelstrom of worries. If anything happened to..._anyone..._it would be my fault.

EPOV

"They're not coming. I should have come alone," Bella fretted, her movements jerky. She seemed torn between the human desire to pace and the vampire urge to freeze statue-like with stress. It had been her suggestion to lure James to the warehouse where she'd been held captive, but it didn't mean she was comfortable with the location. I certainly wasn't and kept flinching as memories of Bella's time here assaulted me.

"We've been over this, Bella." I came as close to snapping as I ever had with her. "There was no way in hell I was letting you come alone."

"_Hell?" _Bella echoed, raising an eyebrow.

I never swore or cursed, so saying "hell" was a big deal for me.

"Whatever," I muttered, and she burst out laughing, surprising us both.

She'd told me on more than one occasion that I could give Mr. Darcy a run for his money in the respectability and straight-laced stakes, but every now and then I managed to sound like a petulant teenager. It wasn't intentional, but she seemed to like the contrast.

"Sorry, baby," she murmured, closing the distance between us and wrapping her arms around me. I didn't hesitate to reciprocate, breathing in her scent and trying to dispel the images of her, screaming in pain, that tormented me...or the thought that it could be about to happen again.

"You don't have to be sorry," I murmured. "I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. I just..." Uncharacteristically speechless, I lifted a hand to run it raggedly through my hair.

"I know," she crooned. "If the tables were turned, I couldn't have let you come alone, either. I just want this to be over, and I'm worried they're not going to show because you're here with me."

"They'll come." I held her close, my voice sounding grim even to my own ears. "James won't be able to resist. In fact, I think he'll enjoy the idea of having an audience."

"He'll have an audience all right," Bella muttered, squeezing me tightly while I rocked her in my arms.

Bella and I had split from the rest of the family in Forks, heading straight for the city. We'd chosen to run across country, advised by Alice that our being on foot would make it easier for James to sense Bella's approach. The rest of the family met up with Sam and Jared in the forest on the edge of town. Splitting into two groups when they reached the outskirts of the city, both contained a wolf companion to block James' awareness of their presence...or so we hoped.

"It will work, won't it?" Bella fretted. "Edward?" she added when I didn't reply, then hushed when my muscles tensed.

"They're here," I whispered into her ear.

"All of them?" she mouthed, and I nodded, pressing send on the text I'd written earlier. It was just two words. _Come now._

"Please let everything turn out all right, please let everything turn out all right," Bella chanted in a faint whisper, even though her talent didn't really work that way.

I smiled reassuringly, but then my expression changed to one of icy fury as our soon-to-be-extinct guests arrived.

"Isabella Marie Swan," James drawled, sauntering into the room as if he didn't have a care in the world. My chest rumbled involuntarily, and Bella squeezed my hand. Strangely, _I _was the wild card in this hand, and I had to keep it together...a difficult thing to do when my mate was being threatened.

Victoria followed close behind James, tossing her hair defiantly, her lip curled in a sneer. Laurent, on the other hand, looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here, his eyes flitting to Bella's and then dropping to where her hand was linked with mine.

_Damn, I'm too late. _His thoughts betrayed his sick and superficial desire to win her over. James wasn't the only one of the trio who was delusional, and I hid a shudder at the perversity of their thoughts.

"Aren't you going to say hello, Bella?" James continued, ignoring me. "If not to me, then surely you owe your mate...your _creator..._a salutation?"

I tensed, but let Bella answer for herself.

"Laurent is not my mate." She raised her chin, stepping closer to my side. Pride at having this beautiful women on my arm welled within me. "If he was, he wouldn't have stood by while you beat me, and he wouldn't have been able to stay away all this time. He only came back because you made him. Not that I expect a lowlife like you to understand how a mate is supposed to be treated. You can't even remain faithful to yours."

Victoria hissed, Bella's words hitting painfully close to the mark. I could have almost felt sorry for her, except for the fact that she took great pleasure in causing fear and suffering in her victims and was anticipating Bella's brutal rape and torture at her mate's hands with relish.

Laurent's thoughts, which fortunately were an open book as he replayed recent events and outlined his expectations, were almost as deviant as those of the other two. He fully intended to stand and watch while James forced Bella, hoping to pick up the pieces—_literally—_of her brutalized and dismembered body once her punishment was over. Laurent actually hoped that Bella would be so broken by what James planned to do to her, she'd turn to him afterward. He planned to woo her with pseudo-kindness and the threat of James' ongoing punishments.

Any doubts I'd had about whether Laurent should be allowed to live vanished. The vermin was complicit in James' intention to harm Bella, and for that he would die.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your young friend?" James smiled slyly, ignoring Bella's comments.

"I'm Edward, Bella's _mate,_" I ground out between clenched teeth. "And you are going to pay for what you did to her."

"Pay?" James barked a laugh. "You should be thanking me...or more correctly, thanking Laurent. If I'd had my way, she would have been supper...well, a late night snack, actually."

I growled, preparing to lunge as my limit of endurance was reached, but Bella tugged me back.

"Not yet," she hissed.

"What is it about you, Bella?" James slithered closer, seemingly dismissive of my presence...an underestimation on his part for which he would _pay _dearly. "I admit you were greatly improved by the change, and I am looking forward to having you..._repeatedly..._and none too gently, before I hand you over to Laurent. But to have found anotherchampion so quickly? It puzzles me. I really don't understand the allure."

"Of course you don't." Bella shrugged. "You're a soulless psychopath who doesn't care about anyone but yourself."

James echoed her shrug. "_You_ obviously don't care for the boy very much since you must know I won't allow him to live. Or has he come to join my coven? He'll have to be satisfied with leftovers...that's if he still wants you after we're done."

It took everything within me not to launch myself at the bastard for both his words and the images filling his sick mind...that and Bella's shield operating to assist me. I could feel it's calming influence bolstering my self control though nothing could prevent the tremors of rage that shook my body.

"Stupid Jerk," Bella muttered, stroking my hand. "Edward came with me because he _cares _about me, not because he wants anything to do with your scummy little band."

"Then you'll get to watch him die, or I might wait to kill him. Watching me have my way with you is an experience he really shouldn't miss."

Victoria wrapped herself sinuously around James' body, murmuring quietly in his ear. She offered to have _her _way with my partially dismembered body while Bella watched on.

James laughed, an evil sound, not at all offended by his supposed mates suggestion, and my mind boggled at the depth of their depravity.

"Take no notice," Bella murmured, stunning me with her courage and control.

Mine was slipping.

Growling quietly but continuously, I knew I couldn't take much more of the vicious images flooding the perverted trio's minds. If it wasn't for the influence of Bella's talent and her firm hold on my arm, I would have attacked. We were biding time. I knew that...but it was torture.

Sensing I was close to losing it, Bella shot me a smirk. "Let me," she whispered.

"I'm not a terrified little newborn anymore, James. Neither am I alone. _Plus _I've still got my newborn strength," she taunted him. "Or are you forgetting what _I _did to you last time you tried to force me to do your bidding?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten," James shouted, stalking closer, his control finally slipping. "I scoured the oceans in agony searching for my leg, you bitch!"

In that moment I caught a most satisfying glimpse of just how agonizing the previous weeks had been for James, and an even more satisfying revelation from Victoria. She didn't know as much about us as we'd assumed, having only picked up Bella's and my scent—from a post hunt mating session, which galled—when she'd ventured close to Forks before being chased off by the wolves. They thought Bella and I were alone.

"Enough!" I roared, hearing the thoughts of my approaching family members and their canine companions. Shoving Bella behind me, an action I was sure to pay for later, I rushed James, easily countering his moves and sending us both crashing to the concrete floor. The fool had convinced himself that all he needed to defeat Bella's newborn strength was to be forewarned—his confidence in his superiority and fighting ability absolute. _Me _he'd discounted on sight, a significant miscalculation on his part.

Motivated by murderous intent, I put everything I had into incapacitating James as quickly as possible. Following the rest of the fight through the eyes and thoughts of the dozen participants, I watched my family, Sam, and Jared joined the melee. To say that James and his cohort were shocked by the sudden onslaught was a comical understatement...not that I was in the mood for laughter. I'd have preferred Bella stay out of harm's way, but of course, she was at my side in an instant. James was strong and experienced, landing a few quick blows that sent me reeling, but he was no match for Bella and I working as a team...or the other members of my family determined to help...or the enormous wolf snapping at his heels.

Laurent's and Victoria's destruction came with surprising ease, making me wonder why every attempt at rescuing Bella we'd foreseen had ended badly. Whether it was the wolves' involvement—they were fierce fighters, I'd give them that—the element of surprise, or just that Bella was now fighting as one of us rather than being a terrified, traumatized victim caught in the crossfire...we had the upper hand and used it mercilessly.

Rose targeted Laurent with all her latent fury, and he didn't stand a chance.

"This is for what you did to Bella, an innocent human," she hissed in his ear, pinning his arms behind him while Emmett tore off his legs. After ripping off his arms, she tossed the rest of him aside, letting Jared finish him off. The wolf took great delight in tearing the screaming vampire apart with his teeth.

It wasn't a pleasant sound...the screaming or the screeching, metallic sound of vampire flesh and limbs being torn asunder.

Victoria almost got away, but every talent has its limits, and hers was overwhelmed by sheer numbers and determination. It took Carlisle, Esme, and Sam to corner her and Jasper, using his talent at full strength in an attempt to subdue her, to begin to get the upper hand. But it was Alice that took her down. Predicting the wily female's moves, she threaded her way through thrashing limbs and snarling jaws and almost nonchalantly ripped Victoria's head from her shoulders. The others took care of her dismemberment, depositing the squirming, writhing limbs and body parts in the separate bags we'd brought for this purpose. A purple smoke-spewing fire in the middle of the city would have drawn too much attention, and we'd already determined to burn the remains outside the city.

While registering everything that was going on around us, my focus was on our own battle with James...or more importantly, my mate. If she got so much as a scratch on her, I fully intended to reassemble James' body and then dismember him again for sport.

"Do you want the honors?" I offered Bella the option to decapitate James herself when the time came. Missing both arms at the shoulder and both legs from mid-thigh, he continued to spew invectives. But Bella's tormentor was surrounded, defeated, and soon to die.

The look of a vampire in full and ferocious rage blazed in my beloved's eyes, and I wouldn't have blamed her for choosing to end James' life herself. But I wasn't surprised when the fire dimmed, the light of reason and her precious humanity returning to her expression.

"You do it, or let one of the others if you prefer." She shrugged and averted her gaze, standing and walking away from where she'd been helping me to hold James' still struggling torso.

I signaled to Emmett and Jasper who quickly took my place and dispatched James with ruthless efficiency. Spending whatever time it took for us to reach the destination of our intended bonfire would have to be punishment enough for my vanquished foe—dismembered but still aware, in agony and instinctively attempting to reassemble despite the fact that his body parts had been deliberately placed in separate bags—as I put my original plan to torture him aside. I'd wanted to hold his head aloft so that he could watch his own body burn...which could still happen though I imagined Carlisle would intervene. I no longer cared. The desire for retribution waned at the sight of Bella standing with her arms wrapped around her middle, her shoulders shaking. All I wanted to do was comfort her.

"Hey, it's okay," I murmured, gathering her close and rocking her in my arms while she sobbed. "It's over...you're safe...we're all safe."

"I know." She nodded against my chest. "I'm just so relieved." Leaning back, her eyes widened in panic and she began to run her hands over my chest and down my arms. "You're not hurt, are you? He hit you so hard and kept trying to bite you."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I assured her as the family gathered around us. "See? We're all fine. Everyone's safe, and the threat is over."

Bella sagged against me as our family offered their own assurances.

"Thank you...all of you." She included the wolves who nodded their huge heads in response. While recognizing that we weren't the enemy, they felt more comfortable remaining in wolf form and would do so until our task was completed and we all met back at the house to debrief.

"Let's get out of here," Jasper directed, and we all murmured our agreement. Bella and I were the only ones not encumbered with a wriggling bag of dismembered vampire body parts, and it was clear from my family's thoughts that they'd not be able to relax fully until after the coming bonfire.

Shrouded in darkness, we silently escaped the city and crossed the sound, the dawn still some hours away. It was only when we were approaching the remote area of forest, where we'd previously decided to complete our grisly task, that Bella spoke.

"Edward," she murmured, drawing me to a halt.

"What is it, love?" I smoothed her furrowed brow.

"Do you think anyone would mind if we didn't stay to watch the...the..._cremation?"_

"Of course not." I leaned down to kiss her softly, wanting nothing more than to reconnect with my beloved far away from the remembered sights and sounds of violence and the coming smell of death. "Do you want to go back to the house, or shall we go straight to the res so you can see your parents?"

"Neither," she surprised me by saying, her hands reaching to frame my face. "Take me to our meadow, Edward," she whispered. "Take me to our meadow and ask me to marry you."

Alice's squeal carried though the night, but I paid no notice.

"Are you sure?" I whispered, shaking my head.

"I'm sure." She smiled, but I couldn't mirror it, concerned she might be reacting to the stress and fear that had overtaken our lives.

"There's no hurry," I insisted. "We've got all the time in the world, and I don't mind waiting...honestly. I don't want you to feel pressured or be reacting to the strain of everything that's happened or..."

Bella silenced me with a kiss, a passionate kiss. It was very effective in accomplishing her purpose as when her lips captured mine, drawing me in, seducing, unraveling, my only thought was...Bella. Moaning, I opened my mouth beneath the exquisite onslaught of her lips. Welcoming her tongue as it stroked inside my mouth, I was overwhelmed by her velvet touch and wondrous taste. With her lithe, curvaceous body melting into me, my mind was as close to blank as it was possible to be by the time she broke the kiss.

"I'm ready," she repeated, gazing intently into my eyes, mesmerizing me further. "I love you. You're my best friend, my lover, my mate, and my future. I want you to be my husband, too."

"What about your parents?" I heard myself ask, wanting to kick myself for the inanity of the question. Why was I trying to discourage her from doing the very thing I wanted most in the world?

Bella surprised me..._again..._by shrugging. "They've practically agreed to a birthday wedding." Her smile was shy and beguiling. "And it will give Alice time to prepare something suitably over-the-top."

"You'll love it. I promise!" Alice's voice was faint as the family had gone on ahead, giving us a semblance of privacy.

For a long moment, all I could do was stare at Bella with my mouth agape. Images of her walking toward me, dressed in white, filled my mind to overflowing. I saw her committing her life to me before both our families and the God I now thanked every single day for her existence,

"Edward?" Bella's worried tone snapped me out of my reverie. "It is still what you want, isn't it? To marry me?"

"Yes!" I shouted and then lowered my tone. "Yes. I love you, and I can think of nothing I want more than to have you as my wife."

"Well that's a relief." Her shoulders sagged, but then she began chewing worriedly on her lower lip. "Just promise me one thing?" she asked, and I would have happily agreed to anything she asked...anything at all.

"Just don't go getting all _Edwardian _on me? I'll agree to us not sleeping together the night before the wedding, but that's it. Deal?"

"Deal," I breathed against her lips, sealing my promise with a kiss. She needn't have worried. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it to our meadow before I made love to her, let alone waiting until her birthday a few months away.

"You do realize you've gone and stolen my thunder," I groused teasingly when we finally drew apart. "Do you even want a proposal or shall we just take it as read?"

Growling, Bella leaped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and framing my face with her hands. "Don't you dare welch on me, Edward Anthony Cullen. I've been anticipating your proposal ever since we first went to the meadow, and I won't be denied."

"Not in that or anything else," I promised, imbuing my kiss with all the love, longing and desire I felt...and would _always _feel...for this most astonishing of girls.

_~HIS~_

_**Well...there you have it. Okay? I'm not much of a fight writer, but I try.**_

_**I can't believe it, but there's only one chapter of Hunted in Seattle left. Nice and long but still, only one. Sigh... **_

_**See you Thursday.**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	37. Sharing

_**Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I've completed my second vamp story...finally.**_

_**Thanks to my wonderful betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for all their help and encouragement. This little short story that grew...and grew...wouldn't have been the same without you. I ended up rewriting this chapter quite a bit, as I wasn't satisfied with it. Sorry I've messed up the betaing.**_

_**My apologies for posting this chapter a couple of days later than promised. I had to do a sleep study test which was quite an experience. Trying to sleep while trussed up like a cross between a Christmas turkey and an astronaut was a little challenging, but the doctors think my snoring (like a lawnmower in a tin shed, hubby tells me) could be contributing to my fatigue and breathlessness. Here's hoping I'll get some answers soon. Thanks for all the best wishes. **_

_**I hope you enjoy the last chapter of Hunted in Seattle.**_

_**Words: 3120**_

Chapter 37

Sharing

BPOV

Edward's and my engagement was just the antidote to the stress, fear, and violence that we all needed. Their reaction wasn't exactly unexpected, but I was still relieved when my parents took the news that we wanted to get married on my birthday calmly. They didn't even mention my age. Meeting with us at the Cullens' house to discuss the aftermath of the battle, they'd both made note of the big bed that now graced Edward's and my room. They'd both suspected it, but the confirmation that Edward and I were essentially living together may have affected their responses a little.

"Not much point waiting to marry since you're not going to get any older _or _change your minds," Charlie gruffly acknowledged after giving me a hug and shaking Edward's hand.

Renee surprised me with her enthusiastic and teary response, as it went against everything she'd ever warned me about marrying young.

"Oh, sweetie," she gushed, when I questioned whether she was really okay with it. "The normal rules don't exactly apply anymore. You're going to make a beautiful bride, and I _know _this young man is going to make you happy. In fact, he already is. I can tell," she added with a wink.

Not for the first time, I was grateful I could no longer blush.

"There's no time to waste," Alice insisted, ushering us into the dining room which had been converted into a mini bridal fair. "We've only got three months, which actually gives me the exact amount of time I need as my visions show the day turning out perfectly."

Shaking my head, I decided to take her word for it and try not to stress too much as Edward and I were swept along for the ride. The decision had been made, and I didn't regret it.

I would be eighteen...sort of...and the wedding would be legal...kind of...officiated by a minister friend of Carlisle's from out of town. Edward's papers were all doctored, of course, but mine were the originals, and we were getting married.

At first I thought we'd only have our immediate families present, but Charlie had naturally wanted to invite his best friends, Billy and Harry. While he'd not received too much criticism over his daughter's supposed rebellion, it had been difficult for him to have to listen to various townsfolk commiserating with him over my running off to New York in such a reckless and hurtful manner...putting him through hell. At least this way, the people that mattered to him the most, and who also knew the truth, could share in our special day.

Billy's and Harry's families were aware that the Cullens were the "cold ones" of their legends. They weren't supposed to find out, but the day of our battle with my attackers, the secret had been revealed. Curious as to why Charlie, Renee, and Phil were staying at Billy's, they'd come to investigate and witnessed Paul phasing in the front yard when he'd gotten spooked. He was still in the dog-house with Sam over it, but personally, I thought it made sense for the others to know. Billy's son, Jacob, would phase soon, and it was expected that Harry's boy, Seth, would follow soon after. I couldn't imagine going through something so fundamentally and terrifyingly life changing without any preparation or understanding of what was going on beforehand...actually, I could. Becoming a vampire would have been a lot easier if I'd known what to expect. The young Quileute boys didn't get a say, their genes and our presence making the decision for them. But at least they wouldn't be going in blind.

"Shouldn't we move away so that no more of the Quileute teenagers phase?" I asked when that aspect of the process was explained to us by Sam.

"It's too late for that." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "The Cullens moving back here a couple of years ago set the wheels in motion."

"We won't return to Forks in future so as not to trigger the same response again," Carlisle offered along with a sincere apology.

"Hey, I love being a wolf," Paul mumbled, hoeing into the mountain of steaks and burgers that Esme and I had cooked up for them on our newly acquired barbeque. "Don't apologize on my behalf. Besides, there are plenty of nomadic vampires that seem to like the Peninsula. You guys might be harmless to humans, but we're still needed to keep the tribe safe."

After working together to defeat a common enemy, our relationship with the wolves had never been in such great shape. I doubted we'd ever be completely comfortable around the creatures that were capable of tearing us limb from limb, or them around us—the smell alone making our spending time together a challenge—but we definitely counted them as friends. Edward and I extended the invitation to them to attend our wedding personally, glad when they accepted.

Consequently, our wedding guests would be an interesting combination of vampire, human, and shape-shifter. Billy and Harry were invited of course, along with Harry's wife, Sue, and their children, Leah and Seth, and Billy's son Jacob, who I vaguely recalled playing with as a child. Sam, his fiancé Emily, Jared, with his imprint Kim, and Paul would make up my parents' side of the aisle.

The Cullens invited their Denali cousins, a fact that filled me with far more trepidation than knowing that three of our guests could morph into gigantic wolves if they so desired. Emmett, the perpetual tease, couldn't resist telling me about Tanya's longstanding crush on Edward and the interesting methods she'd employed to try and convince him to have a relationship with her over the years. Learning that Tanya and her sisters were the actual succubi of legend, and then meeting them a few days before the wedding and discovering they were all insanely beautiful, hadn't exactly helped.

"You know I only have and will only ever have eyes for you," Edward assured me repeatedly when I couldn't quite hide my concern.

"But they're all so stunning...and the way she looks at you...and the things Emmett said..."

Edward growled, grabbed my hand, and dragged me with him both deep into the forest. Once we were far from prying eyes and ears, he set out proving to me, once and for all and in a particularly satisfying manner, that I had nothing to fear.

Much later, lying naked and tangled in Edward's limbs, thoroughly sated and as close to exhausted as it is possible for vampires to be, I apologized for doubting him.

"It's not me you're doubting, sweetheart," he surprised me by saying. "It's just some leftover insecurity from your human days."

"You think so?" I murmured, leaning up on my elbows to look down into his beautiful face, his sex-tousled hair irresistibly calling my fingers to play. No wonder Tanya had not given up even after Edward said he wasn't interested.

"You still don't see yourself clearly." He traced his finger along my jaw. "You're insanely beautiful, and I don't see anyone but you."

The words reminded me of his _insanely _romantic proposal.

"Isabella Swan. I promise to love you forever...ever single moment of forever. Will you do me the extraordinary honor of becoming my wife?"

"Yes," I breathed, something I was eager to tell him again on our wedding day.

There'd been times leading up to it that I thought it would never arrive, that the planning and decision-making would go on forever. Spending the night before the wedding apart had been torture, but finally the day of Edward's and my marriage dawned...bright and clear and lovely.

"Ready?" Charlie asked when all the primping and fussing was behind us. I nodded, smiling to reassure him.

He was nervous. I could feel the slight tremor in his arm and detect the hint of fear in his scent...a scent that barely bothered me anymore. Whether the use of my talent to suppress my desire for human blood had become an ingrained part of me, or if it was just the passing of time, the only thing stopping me from integrating back into normal life was my eye color. Even that was barely an issue, the deep, fiery red of a newborn having faded to a dark, almost brownish maroon. The amber would come next, but if anything, my current color was probably closer to what my natural eye color had been.

The music began and Charlie straightened his spine, drawing in a deep breath. I was proud to be on his arm. He looked mighty fine in his tuxedo, and I had no doubt that Edward would find me beautiful in my satin and lace wedding gown. I'd insisted on making the final selection, even if Alice knew which one I'd eventually choose from the range of stunning gowns she brought to the house for me to view.

Suppressing a snort, I mused that Edward would have thought me beautiful if I'd worn a sack, but it was nice knowing I was sure to impress him.

Just as he impressed me...mesmerized me...overwhelmed me.

"Oh, my," I whispered, catching my first sight of my groom dressed in his morning suit. Handsome didn't even begin to describe him, and I fretted as Charlie and I made our way at a ridiculously slow human pace down the flower strewn aisle.

_I will not pick my father up and run with him at vampire speed,_ I chanted, strengthening my resolve.

I wasn't nervous at all, even with everyone looking at me. I only had eyes for Edward.

Alice had created a floral wonderland amid the trees behind the house in keeping with the theme Edward and I had requested. We'd talked about getting married in our meadow, but it wasn't practical. This was our compromise. Alice had brought the meadow to the house, and for the reception, she'd planned a glittering, candle-lit fantasy land.

It was as over-the-top as I'd expected, especially considering there weren't that many of us present, but I didn't mind. Alice had been right, and she'd become the best girlfriend I'd always wanted. Rosalie's and my relationship was a little different, less girlie, and yet equally as strong. We'd bonded over shared experiences of finding ourselves in situations outside of our control, at the mercy of others. But I liked to think that the way I'd adapted so enthusiastically to life as a vampire had encouraged her to view her life with a little less cynicism.

Emmett adored her, the big goofball, and was definitely the life of any party. He could drive me a little crazy with his incessant teasing, but I couldn't help but love him. He was the big brother I'd never had but always wished for. Watching Edward beat the tar out of him was fu everything I'd hoped it would be. Sharing our vows was a magical, spiritually moving moment that I would treasure forever. We kissed for a little too long, gazed into each other's eyes like a pair of love-struck fools, and thankfully, didn't have to pretend to eat the multi-tiered cake. The speeches weren't terribly embarrassing, Alice having seen Renee's plan to sing and talking her out of it. Charlie reminded Edward that he owned a blowtorch, Emmett made an embarrassing comment about the wedding night and it being a good thing we didn't need to sleep, and Edward melted my heart with his words of love and devotion.

Dancing together later in the evening, I whispered in his ear, "Sweetheart, I've got a present for you."

"You're the only gift I'll ever want," he murmured, tugging me a little closer and ignoring the indulgent glances of our guests. His family was in on my secret, having gone to great lengths to keep him distracted while I'd practiced. I knew it would work, as I'd actually been trying it out on Edward for a while, shielding him from one person's thoughts at a time. Success came when he didn't respond to his name being mentally called or, in Emmett's case, he didn't react to a blatant provocation. I'd not tried it with more than two or three people at a time, but I was confident it would work with a larger number...at least I hoped.

One by one, I excluded his family members, then mine, then our guests, from our own private little bubble until Edward was completely shielded from the thoughts and mental chatter going on all around him.

"What?" He missed a step, looking around in stunned surprise.

"It's working," I cried, giving Alice a run for her money in the squealing department.

Everyone started to clap and cheer, which defeated the purpose a little, so I shushed them to silence. Edward stared at me in awe.

"_You're _doing this?" he whispered, and I nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

"I can hear the music and people talking, but that's it," he exclaimed, picking me up and whizzing me around in circles. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! You amazing, wonderful, beautiful girl."

I was a little shocked by his response, and it made me wonder just how difficult his life must be, constantly being bombarded by the thoughts of others. Once I had the pattern established, it was almost effortless to keep Edward shielded, and I told him so.

"Are you saying that I can have mental silence whenever we're together? I don't _have _to listen in to the thoughts of others unless I want to or we need me to for the family's safety?"

"Exactly." I nodded, and from the way Edward's eyes shone, I knew he'd have been crying if that were possible.

The rest of the night passed in a happy blur. All I knew of our honeymoon plans was that we would be spending the next few days nearby before flying out by private jet to a secret destination...well, secret to me. Edward had taken great delight in keeping me in the dark, and no amount of begging or cajoling on my part had weakened his resolve.

"But what should I pack?" I'd grumbled, not willing to do what Alice wanted and leave it completely to her. _She _knew, of course, as did the rest of the family who would be joining us after a few weeks to begin our leisurely world tour.

Sighing, Edward had relented a little. "Pack for the sun," he'd said. "Bikinis...or not. I don't mind if you'd rather go skinny-dipping. We'll have complete privacy."

"Oh, that sounds like bliss," I'd admitted, earning a very pleased smile from my fiancé.

Saying goodbye hadn't been too bitter sweet, knowing we'd see everyone again in a month, though I'd still taken the time to hug Charlie and Renee and let them know how much I loved them.

Impatient for us to be alone, Edward had eventually dragged me away. He insisted on carrying me through the forest, making me wonder if we were going to our meadow. I wouldn't have minded, but when he showed me where we'd be spending our wedding night and the next few days—in our very own home—I was momentarily lost for words.

"It's perfect," I whispered, gazing awestruck at the fairytale cottage hidden amongst the towering trees of our own, private forest.

"I know how difficult it's been for you living in such close proximity to so many other couples. This way we can have our privacy, but we're close enough to the family to spend time with them whenever we want."

"Oh, Edward, thank you." I smiled as he carried me over the threshold of the home the family had built and decorated for us just a few miles away from the main house. I loved his family dearly, but I couldn't deny this was just what I'd been longing for...the best of both worlds.

"You're welcome, Mrs Cullen," he murmured, nuzzling my neck and giving me a tour of the house I would never forget.

It was quite some time before we made it to the bedroom. There were a lot of surfaces to christen, and we were both determined to enjoy all our "firsts" as a married couple.

Hours later when we lay replete in each other's arms, finally having made it onto the bed, I gave him my second present.

It took a little more concentration than shielding his mind from the thoughts of others, and I didn't know if it would work. But after a few moments, the light in Edward's eyes showed me my efforts were successful.

_I love you, Edward, with all my heart,_ I thought his way, and he trembled in my arms.

"Oh, God...Bella...Bella..." He rained kisses on my face, and I giggled, overcome with relief.

_You can hear me? You can really hear me? _

"Yes!" he cried triumphantly, "and I was right. Your mind is the most precious place imaginable. Can you keep it up?"

_Why? What did you have in mind? _I answered, deliberately imbuing my thoughts with a sultry tone.

"This," he breathed, his lips joining with mine while his hands began an exploration of my body, responding to both my silent and murmured encouragement.

Every time I decided things couldn't get any better between us, Edward proved me wrong. Not that I was complaining. I hadn't chosen this life, but I knew without a doubt that if I'd not been turned into a vampire before arriving in Forks, I would have begged Edward to make me like him so that I could stay with him forever.

_I love you, and I'm so proud to be married to you, _I told my new husband as he loved me over and over, expertly and oh, so passionately. As night turned to day and then back to night again, I reveled in the knowledge that just as Edward was inside my body, he was also inside my mind...hearing how much I loved him...how much he meant to me...exactly what he did to me.

"Other than your giving yourself to me and becoming my wife, this is the best gift I've ever received," he murmured after hearing my perspective of our shared journey into bliss.

_You are very, very welcome,_ I whispered into his mind, my mouth fully engaged elsewhere.

While it was incredibly intimate being able to share myself with my new husband this way, I hadn't finished exploring what my talent could do. It might take me a while, but I looked forward to the day when I could share Edward's thoughts just as he was sharing mine.

I'd arrived in Forks hunted and afraid, traumatized by what had been done to me...and what I'd done, and terrified of the future. But I'd be leaving confident in my ability to survive whatever this new life might bring. With Edward beside me, the support of both our families behind us, and a never-ending love filling our hearts, forever stretched wondrously ahead.

The End.

_**I hope you enjoyed the wrap up for Hunted in Seattle. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to review at some point or another along this journey. To everyone else...I hope you enjoyed the story. I had a lot of fun writing it.**_

_**I won't be posting a new story for a little while, as I'm determined to finish the original story The Writer's Coffee Shop are interested in publishing. Hopefully, I'll be posting some one-shots for my other two stories to finish them off before too long.**_

_**Thanks again for all your support and encouragement. I'm going to miss you guys like crazy. Feel free to PM me any time you'd like a chat. :D  
**_

_**xxx TLSue**_


	38. Request and Announcement

Hi Everyone.

I just wanted to let my wonderful readers know I've signed with The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House, and my reworked fan fiction story, A Forbidden Love, will be published on December 17th. Yay! It's new title will be Innocence. My first original story, also a historical romance but with a slight 'Beauty and the Beast' feel, will be published soon after. My author name is Elise de Sallier, a reworking of my much loved grandmother's maiden name. You can find out a little more about me and my publishing endeavors at .com or by following me on twitter at ESallier or facebook as Elise de Sallier.

Thank you so much for all the support I've received. I'm doing a little better on the health front now I have a diagnosis (or five...these darn illnesses seem to accumulate!) and am happily writing full time now I can no longer work as a counsellor. To those who are wondering, I'll definitely be leaving my other two stories up...for as long as FFn lets me as they are rather lemony!

Thanks so much for all the prayer, best wishes, and support. It's great to be a part of such a wonderful fandom.

xx Elise (LOL! I'm getting used to a name change!)


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